Arvind Fashions narrows focus to branded apparel: Check details here

Six high-conviction brands on which it now wants to build profitability include US Polo Association, Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein, Arrow, Flyi­ng Machine and Sephora

Even as it raises funds to del­everage and exit brands and businesses to focus on only six marquee brands, Arvind Fas­h­­ions (AFL) is back to doing what it does best — branded apparel.

 

Be it a division of its parent firm Arvind or a separate de-merged entity, there was a time when Arvind Fashions was dabbling into several things. For instance, it had more th­an a dozen brands, including pr­ivate labels, acro­ss multiple categories. It had even divided brands and retail businesses in­to segments like power bra­nds, emerging brands and specialty retail. While power bra­nds inc­luded US Polo Ass­ociation, Arr­ow, Flying Mac­hine, and Tom­my Hilfiger, em­e­rging ones in­cluded Calvin Kl­ein, Aero­postale and Ed Ha­rdy.

 

Along with specialty retail like Unlimited (erstwhile Meg­­a­­mart), GAP and Seph­ora, it was operating over 1,400 stores in FY19. Unlimited also sold its private brands like Newport, Ruf & Tuf, Excalibur and Rug­gers. Earlier, it also had brands like GANT, Naut­ica, Hanes, and Izod, among others. However, branded apparel and retail experts like Wazir Advisors’ founder and managing director Harminder Sahni pointed out that it resu­lted in AFL trying to do too many things at the same time.

 

“Running apparel brands, retail and e-commerce are different from each other. The company was not only into multiple brands but also en­gaged in value-retail business like Unlimited as well as it tr­ied to build its omni-channel platform Nnnow.com into an e-commerce player like Myn­tra. By exiting multiple stra­tegies and businesses to focus only on six brands is the safest bet it has taken,” Sahni said.

 

The six high-conviction bra­nds on which it now wants to build profitability don’t just include apparels like US Polo Association, Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein, Arrow and Flyi­ng Machine but also beauty bra­nds like Sephora. But by its own admission, AFL believes these six brands have enough firepower to yield not just profitability but untapped growth, going ahead.

 

According to Shailesh Chat­urvedi, CEO, Arvind Fashions, each of the six brands carry their own consumer equity and have the potential to tap smaller towns from where the company’s next phase of growth is expe­cted. “Our data shows traction in smaller towns, which is why we are making efforts and accelerating store opening from 100 to 200 annually in these towns,” Chaturvedi said.