Lladro to open four boutiques this year

Lladro SA, the $300-million Spanish porcelain figurine major, plans to open four more boutiques in the country by the end of this year.

The company, through its joint venture, Lladro India Limited, currently operates five boutiques "� two in Mumbai and one each in Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad.

"We have frozen on opening four more boutiques this year "� two in Mumbai and one each in Delhi and Kolkata. Construction and interior works are under way at our Kolkata boutique, which would be opened in the next two months," Angelique O'Brien, chief executive officer of Lladro India Limited, told Business Standard. The company opened its first boutique in Hyderabad on Wednesday.

Lladro SA had entered into a joint venture with Delhi-based SPA Agencies Private Limited in November 2006. While Lladro SA holds 26 per cent in the JV, the remaining stake is held by its Indian counterpart.

"Besides, we are planning to set up two Lladro flagship stores, each spreading over 3.5 million sft, in Delhi and Mumbai by 2008. While each boutique typically requires an investment of $1 million, the flagship stores absorb anywhere between $3 million and $3.5 million each," O'Brien said.

Stating that the company's target clientele comprises the elite who have a penchant for exquisite and hand-made porcelain figurines, she said the company would soon offer customised products, from miniatures to life-size figurines.

"Since our products are exclusively manufactured at Valencia in Spain and this skill requires a lot of intricacy, the customised products, however, would take six months to one-and-a-half-year for shipment," she added.

Lladro's 2,000-sft boutique in Hyderabad, spread over two levels, offers Re-Cyclos Magical collection, an artistic concept based on using elements from the existing Lladro pieces and creating new objects with them.

The central masterpiece of the boutique is a fibre optics chandelier featuring 112 suspended porcelain fairies, priced at Rs 27 lakh. The entry price point of the figurines is Rs 9,000 and goes up to Rs 70 lakh.

Lladro India Limited expects to garner revenues of $5 million this calendar year and its revenue outlook for the next year is $7 million.