Levi's opens largest store in Asia

Levi's has opened its largest store in the Asia Pacific region "" Levi's Square "" on Brigade Road in Bangalore. The store, spread over 9,000 square feet, claims country manager of Levi Strauss India Pvt Ltd Shumone Chatterjee "will become a tourist attraction."

The flagship store will have one salesperson for every 200 square feet. This is as compared to the one salesperson for every 300 square feet of store space in its other stores.

The store, which had been up and running for over 10 days, has had 40 per cent more revenues than from the three Levi's stores in the city combined.

Levi's revenues from India has been seeing a 35 per cent to 40 per cent increase per annum. With retailing getting organised, says Chatterjee, the sales of branded goods will only increase. The revenue growth of Levi's in most developed countries has been around 5 per cent to 10 per cent.

The three levels of the new store captures different sides of the brand. The first level, called the Levi's Lounge, displays the premium products, while level 2 is called Levi's Campus and third level is called the Levi's Foundry.

The firm uses proprietary stitching, and special washing technique and fabric with specially-chosen yarn for its jeans, said Chatterjee.

On the difference in consumer behaviour between India and the developed countries, he said while in India women make up only 30 per cent of its customers, in most of the developed nations, they make up over 50 per cent of the customers.

While in India, Levi's jeans are a premium offering, in the US and some other developed markets it is a mid-range offering.

Levi's is looking at opening stores at Belgaum, Davanagere, Hubli and Dharwad. It has stores in Mangalore and Mysore. But, unlike the big cities, Levi's will have just one big store in the smaller cities since the company gets better exposure there.