Park Avenue to unveil brand for mid-segment

There is a good news for people who thought branded menswear will always be expensive.

The largest selling brand of Raymond, Park Avenue menswear brand, will soon launch a mid-segment brand to cater to the great Indian middle class.

"We are contemplating launching a mid-segment brand under the Park Avenue umbrella. We are already present in the retail outlets and in the form of exclusive high-street stores in all metros. As we now move into tier I and tier II towns and cities, we thought of launching an economy brand that people of middle-income groups in these towns and cities would be able to afford," said Vishal Kapoor, senior manager (marketing), Park Avenue.

The mid-segment brand may initially be an extension of the existing Park Avenue brand or may sport a completely different brand name and logo.

The brand, initially, will stock only formal wear for men, like Park Avenue, with different price points.

"The economy brand would stock shirts that would range between Rs 500-800, while the premium brand, Park Avenue, stocks shirts that would start from Rs 800 onwards," said Kapoor.

He added, "We are also looking at segmenting the market to ensure more growth for the company." Park Avenue already has a leisure, travel and evening wear extensions, with 75 per cent of the sales contributed by purchase of formal or business wear. Parx, the casual wear brand, will soon stock an excursion and outdoor wear extensions.

The idea is to segment the market according to the season and moods, so that the consumers have a larger variety. "At Park Avenue, we would bring newer collection in every 6 months, so that 80 per cent of Park Avenue collection would be new in every season," said Kapoor.

Park Avenue recently launched its 'easy stretch collection', to combine multiple benefits of comfort, fit and ease of movement.The brand is also bullish on retail expansion to make itself more visible and be more locally present.

The brand already has 12 exclusive stores all over India and is planning to have a total of 55 exclusive stores by December 2007.

"We are also looking at presence inside malls. We have almost saturated high streets with Park Avenue exclusive stores, now we are looking at setting up exclusive stores inside every shopping mall that would come up in any part of India," said Kapoor.

This year, of the total number of exclusive stores that Park Avenue will set up, 60 per cent will be inside shopping malls, and 40 per cent on high streets.