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Allen Solly, the brand that broke the rules of formal dressing in corporates in the mid-1990s, reacted immediately to Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka’s move to introduce smart business casuals as the new dress code for Infoscions. Starting on Wednesday, Allen Solly is offering all Infoscions a 25 per cent discount on their shopping at any of their stores till Saturday.
“Allen Solly introduced the trend of Friday casual dressing in the Indian workplace. So, when Vishal Sikka made smart business casuals the official dress code, we spontaneously decided to offer all Infoscions a discount to start their shopping with a bang at our stores” Allen Solly’s COO Sooraj Bhat told BusinessLine . Allen Solly has a footprint of 255 stores with apparel and accessories for men, women and children in 98 cities located in 25 States in the country.
Pointing out that work casuals as a category is growing strongly over the last two-three years with a number of non-traditional, offbeat professions gaining ground, Bhat said: “We are seeing a big shift from formals to casuals at the workplace in India especially in the BPO, Advertising, Media and Entertainment and IT sectors where the new age workforce is keen to look stylish, fashionable and most importantly, express their individuality. As a consequence, our revenue has grown at 30 per cent CAGR where we garnered ₹800 crore in FY-2015 and are targeting ₹1,000 crore this fiscal.”
The brand is on rapid expansion mode this year, with plans to add 80 new stores, the bulk of which will be franchisee-led. “This is a year of big investments for us where the capital investment toward opening a store averaging 1,200 sq ft in size is ₹30 lakh, amounting to a total of ₹24 crore” said Bhat.
Indian men are opening up to the idea of adopting new fashion trends such as bold coloured trousers and slim fitted trousers vs regular/baggy fits. “In 2013-14, coloured trousers for men were the reigning trend and we saw mustard and burgundy coloured trousers rapidly flying off our shelves with many men opting for yellow and cobalt coloured trousers, too, which you would never have seen 10 years ago. We are also catering to the rising demand for slim fits with four different kinds of slim fits for our range of Chinos,” said Bhat.
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