100-year-old bespoke suiting brand, PN Rao is planning to adopt the franchising route to expand its presence further and penetrate deeper into the country, Ketan Pishe and Naveen Pishe, partners, P N Rao tol ETRetail.
Currently, the brand runs 8 company-owned company-operated stores – 5 in Bengaluru, 2 in Chennai, and 1 in Hyderabad. By this fiscal year-end, it plans to open four stores via a franchising route and also plans to open one company-owned and company-operated luxury store in Bengaluru in the coming financial year.
“Post Covid, for a couple of years, we decided to consolidate our position and then, we decided to expand via franchise route. We will be adopting the FOCO model in Bengaluru, Chennai, and Hyderabad where we already have operations, and in other locations, we will be promoting the FOFO model,” they asserted.
At present, the average store size of the brand spans across 3,000 – 3,500 sq.ft, whereas the luxury store will span across 2,000 sq.ft. The CAPEX for an opening average COCO store of the brand stands at Rs 2.7 – 3 crore.
“The average stores that we plan to open via franchising route, will span across 2,500 – 3,000 sq.ft in metro and tier I cities and around 1,500 sq.ft in tier II and beyond,” they said.
“The investment in FOFO model will be around Rs 1.2 crore and the ROI is expected in 2.5 – 3 years,” they further added.
The brand, which has a presence in the ready-to-wear, fabric, and tailoring categories, will be initially focusing on opening stores in South India to penetrate into the market further.
In the ready-to-wear category, it houses two sub-brands – Signature, which focuses on classic and clean clothing, and Newman, which targets ceremonial wear.
“For Signature, we do the manufacturing in-house, whereas for Newman, we have outsourced the manufacturing and certain products we manufacture in-house,” they stated.
Currently, the manufacturing unit of the brand spans across 1.5 acre and so far, it has built a unit spreading across 15,000 sq ft and out of this, 70 per cent has been utilised.
“Once we get closer to 80-90 per cent capacity, we will start building another unit,” they asserted.
Currently, 55 per cent of the revenue of the brand comes from its bespoke business, 25 per cent from Newman, and the remaining 20 per cent from Signature.
Going ahead, the brand is also planning to build its online presence by offering bespoke services, however, Newman has already forayed into the online segment 6 months back.
The brand, which has an EBITDA profitability of 11-15 per cent, closed the last fiscal with Rs 59.8 crore in revenue and will be closing this fiscal with Rs 65 crore in revenue. It is eyeing to close FY 26 with Rs 75 crore.
