Turtle to expand business in Europe, West Asia

Turtle, Kolkata based manufacturer of men apparels is expanding its business in India as well as in Europe and Middle East Asia. The company is opening over 50 stores across India and is investing 15 crore in the next two years.

Speaking to Business Standard, Shitanshu Jhunjhunwalla, director, marketing and sales, Turtle said, “ After setting up business in the Eastern part of India, we are now looking for west zone. Earlier we had very little presence in Maharashtra, But from last four years we are on expansion mode and opening stores in Pune, Mumbai, Nagpur, Kolhapur Latur, Nashik, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Lucknow. Most of the our stores are run on franchise basis. Maharashtra is the second largest market for Turtle after West Bengal. We are growing at 15 per cent per year and have a target of 25 per cent for for this year.

At present, the firm retails its products through 55 exclusive Turtle stores, including 10 company-owned, and 1,600 multi-brand outlets across 400 cities. Turtle has over 150 dealers in Maharashtra. The company is exporting shirts to markets like Dubai, Bahrain and Muscat. Turtle is expanding its footprint in Europe and West Asia and plans to launch three exclusive brand stores overseas this year.

On this development, Jhunjhunwalla added, “We have tied up with Massimo, a fashion brand based in Milan to launch a range of our products in European market. We have studied Italian market for our products and we are confident to succeed with our strategy in European market. Initially, we will sell cotton shirts, trousers and T-shirts with a price tag between Euro 15 and Euro 25 while the starting price of our competitor is Euro 20-25 per item, with designer shirts priced at Euro 60 and trousers at Euro 80.”

The company has been selling a range of menswear apparel under Turtle, a premium brand and its London Bridge for casual wear, an economy brand in the UAE, Oman and Bahrain for the last six years.

According to Jhunjhunwalla Massimo will first launch an exclusive store in Cosenza city in Italy this week to retail products under the Turtle brand. Also, the company will launch three more stores in Milan and Como cities through its partner franchisee Massimo in the next six months. Turtle manufactures a total of 2.5 million apparel products annually and competes with Louis Philips, Van Heusen, Allen Solly Peter England, Park Avenue, Colour Plus, Indigo Nation and John Players.

All the Turtle products are manufactured from its three manufacturing units in Kolkata and one captive unit in Bangalore. It outsources the accessory products Delhi and Ludhiana.