Gitanjali Group forays into apparel segment with popular brands

Plans to set up close to 300 selling points across the country this calender year

Branded jewellery retailer Gitanjali Group has forayed into the apparels segment as part of its brand extension of its popular brands and is planning up to 300 selling points across the country in this calender year, a top company executive has said.
    
"Foraying into apparels is part of brand extension, as we wanted to increase our product line, business and simultaneously our offering in terms of products to our target customers. So complimenting jewellery the next thing that would interest women would be apparels and accessories," Gitanjali Group CMD Mehul Choksi told PTI.
    
"We are planning it only with our popular brands. We have already launched Gili Apparels, Diya Apparels and Maya Apparels last year. We are planning 200-300 selling points for this segment, including multi brand outlets, franchisee and online, brand this calender year," he said.

    

For online apparel sales, Gitanjali Group has signed up with Jabong, Myntra and Flipkart. The company will soon launch apparels under Asmi and Viola.
    
"We will also soon enter into men apparel under Revv, a brand targeted at youth of today," he said.
    
The company is planning to invest Rs 20-25 crore as marketing expenditure to promote these apparel brands.
    
"We will spend about Rs 25-30 crore to promote these apparel brands and the funds will be through internal accruals," he said.
    
The company is targeting the apparel segment penetrate the Tier II and III cities besides the metro and Tier I cities, he said.

    
These apparels under the Gitanjali brands will mainly be supplied in its manufacturing units in Jaipur, Rajasthan, Choksi said.
    
"We have a manufacturing unit is Jaipur, which will mainly cater to this segment. We will also outsource from independent vendors," he added.
    
When asked about taking the apparel brands overseas, Choksi said the company is looking at establish this segment in the do
mestic market and will soon take it to other countries beginning with the Middle East countries.
    
"We entered this segment just eight months back. We will first look at establishing the segment in the country before venturing overseas. But we will take our apparel segment overseas starting with Dubai in a couple of months," he said.