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Monte Carlo Fashions, a company known primarily for its winter wear, now plans to focus aggressively on the non-winter category and lifestyle garments.
Winter wear accounts for almost 75 per cent of the company's total sales, which stood at Rs 400 crore for the year ended March 31, 2012, said Mr Swapan Dutta, President-retail, Monte Carlo.
Now, the company is aiming to change the ratio and take the share of non-woollen wear to 50 per cent (25 per cent) in the next five years by launching more exclusive outlets and by undertaking summer-specific ad campaigns.
The company aims to achieve a turnover of Rs 550 crore by the end of this fiscal.
Monte Carlo, a group outfit of Nahar Group of Companies, was earlier a part of the Oswal Woollen Mills Ltd. The garments business of Oswal Woollen Mills was hived off into Monte Carlo Fashions Ltd in April 2011.
“We are aggressively pursuing marketing and advertising strategy to position ourselves in the youth wear and fashionable garments segment,” Mr Dutta said. Monte Carlo will be upping its ad and marketing spend this year. Last year it spent Rs 26.5 crore on marketing and advertising.
“We have 151 exclusive Monte Carlo outlets across the country at present. We plan to add 30 more by the end of this fiscal,” he said.
Sticking to its Knitting
The company would also continue to expand its production and sales of woollen garments to cater to the higher demand, he said.
“Our manufacturing facility in Ludhiana, Punjab, has a capacity to produce approximately 15 lakh pieces of woollen garments a year while our requirement is about 25-30 lakh pieces a year,” he said.
The company might either go for a greenfield expansion by setting up a multi-faceted unit at an estimated investment of about Rs 800 crore or would opt for about Rs 200 crore worth expansion of its present unit in Ludhiana.
Mr Dutta said there are plans to take the Monte Carlo brand to international markets such as Nigeria, Cameroon and Ivory Coast. “We are looking at the shop-in-shop format for entering into these African countries as well as New Zealand and Australia. This apart we are also planning to have two flagship stores in Dubai and West Asia,” he said.
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