Shobha Roy

Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail is looking to tap the women’s innerwear and athleisure (casual clothing for workout and daily wear) market under the Van Heusen brand name.

The company, which forayed into the ₹7,000-crore men’s premium innerwear and athleisure market last year, plans to roll out products for women by July.

According to Puneet Kumar Malik, COO, Innerwear Business, Aditya Birla Fashion, women’s innerwear market in the organised segment is estimated at ₹3,000 crore is growing at nearly 18 per cent on a year-on-year basis.

“The women’s innerwear segment is still largely dominated by the unorganised market which is pegged at ₹12,000 crore. But the organised segment is growing and is expected to double to ₹6,000 crore by 2022,” Malik told BusinessLine .

Women are increasingly becoming brand conscious and looking for innerwear that offers a ‘comfortable fit’ and supports western wear, he said.

The mid-premium to premium segment (at a price point of ₹400-700 and upwards) typically accounts for nearly 50 per cent of the total women’s innerwear market.

This segment is growing at around 22 per cent, while the economy segment (products priced at around ₹200-400) is growing at 13-14 per cent. The company will launch products aimed at all these verticals.

The innerwear business, Malik said, has seen a ‘phenomenal growth’ since its launch last year.

Athleisure garments like joggers, track pants, sweat shirts account for 30-40 per cent of its total sales, refusing to divulge sales turnover.

“We hope to grab 10-11 per cent share of the total innerwear market by 2022,” he said.

Distribution footprint

Van Heusen’s innerwear and athleisure is currently available across 7,000 outlets, including 150 Van Heusen exclusive stores, 120 Planet Fashion stores and multi-brand outlets.

The company currently has five exclusive innerwear and athleisure stores and plans to open 15-20 more taking the total store count to 20 by March 2018. It also plans to add another 50-60 exclusive stores in the next fiscal. These would be a mix of company-owned and franchisee model, he said.

This apart, the company is also betting big on online sales. It currently accounts for about 5 per cent of its total sales but is likely to grow to 15 per cent in the next couple of years.

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