Korean brand Mumuso looks to open more stores

Korean lifestyle brand Mumuso, which began India operations last month, is looking to give a leg-up to Indian handicrafts and local artisan works.

According to Raunak Agarwal, Managing Director, Mumuso — India, the company has earmarked ₹40-50 crore for its first phase of expansion, and, will look to leverage Indian regional handicrafts once its operations here gain scale.

Scale in operations means the company will look to have 100-odd stores by mid-2020 before it can start giving space to such regional artisans, handicrafts and mementoes.

“Indian handcrafts that include mementoes and artefacts do quite well. A number of NGOs too are doing a good job promoting them. We look forward to work with them and house these artefacts. However, the immediate focus is on expanding operations in India,” he told BusinessLine .

“Once we get to around 100 stores and have scale in operations, we intend to have a dedicated space for Indian artefacts and handicrafts of each region,” Agarwal added.

The Korean lifestyle brand entered the India market in September this year with its first store in Kolkata. Plans are afoot to have 25 stores in the first phase and expand to cities such as Siliguri, Jaipur, Mumbai, Delhi, Surat, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and others.

On an average ₹1.5-2 crore will be spent towards setting up these company-owned stores. Typically, stores break-even in about 24 months.

Mumuso whose offerings include accessories, stationery, small electronics and lifestyle items, sources these mostly from South Asian nations such as Malaysia, Singapore, China, Indonesia and Korea.

According to Agarwal, the company would also look to source from Indian companies specially apparels and small leather products.

“By 2019 we are targeting a Rs 100 crore business from India,” he said.

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