We can make luxury pay, says Genesis Colors

Genesis Colors, which imports and retails international luxury brands such as Jimmy Choo, Bottega Veneta and Just Cavalli, is expecting five-fold growth in its revenues by 2014, a key company executive said.

The company has a licensing agreement with luxury brands such as Canali, Kenzo and Paul Smith, apart from its own premium brands such as Satya Paul, Tie Rack and Shobhaa De, among others. it plans to open 10-12 stores for each of its international luxury brands, 100 Tie Rack Landon stores and 50 Satya Paul accessory stores in the next three to five years, the executive said.

It spends Rs 2 crore each on an average in opening stores for its luxury brands.

Genesis expects 45 per cent growth in its revenues in the current financial year, at Rs 220 crore from the Rs 151 crore in 2008-09, he said.

Genesis plans come after the near-exit of retailers such as the Murjani group from the luxury segment, on the reasoning that the Indian market had not matured enough in the segment. In fact, Bottega Veneta and Jimmy Choo were earlier with Murjani.

"We understand this segment very well. We are confident of pulling it off in the future. During the slowdown, there was some impact, but there were more ups than downs. When we started the business in mid-2008, it was a new thing for Indians and our business picked up very well,”' said Rajiv Grover, vice president of Genesis Colors, on the sidelines of India Fashion Forum here.

While luxury brands grew 60 per cent in revenues in FY 2010, brands such as Satya Paul grew by 25 per cent, Grover said.

Genesis currently has two stores each in its luxury brands portfolio, except for Canali, which has six stores. The luxury segment is expected to contribute 50 per cent of the company's business in 2010-11, Grover said.

“We do a lot of events around Bollywood personalities, apart from doing personal retailing to build brand loyalty among customers,'' he said.

Recently, Genesis signed a joint venture with British luxury goods retailer Burberry, where it took a 49 per cent stake. The company plans to open stores in all metro cities.

Grover said the maximum retail price-based countervailing duty (CVD) was the biggest challenge for luxury retailers in the country. Retailers of imported luxury goods have to pay a CVD of 8 per cent.

Genesis Colors is led by Sanjay Kapoor and has investments from private equity investors such as Sequoia Capital, SVB India Capital, Henderson Equity Partners and Mayfield.