Welspun looks beyond Wal-Mart, JC Penny

Welspun USA's e-commerce plans comes at a time when only 3-5 per cent of home textile sales in the US is ordered over the internet. The New York-based company is targeting the mid to upper end of the American home textile market, pegged around $15-17 billion. A couple of established retailers such as JC Penny have built the online retail model over the last decade.

"We are looking at selling through the internet in the US as we do not want to launch own stores and compete with our retail clients. To begin with, we will sell our brands that will not affect the business of our buyers,'' said Bob Hamilton, director, Welspun USA, and advisor to Welspun Retail, the retailing arm of the Welspun group. The information website is expected to come up by the year-end with plans to start the e-commerce site by the next year. He declined to share financial details, including sales from the proposed model.

The company, which also supplies to K Mart and Target, plans to expand its US share through three brands