The fashion retail house for handbags, travel gear, and lifestyle accessories, Brand Concepts Limited, which recently announced the introduction of Juicy Couture handbags in India via a 15-year long deal, will be investing Rs 20 crore to expand the retail presence of the brand in the country. Over the next three years, it is eyeing Rs 50 crore retail revenue contribution from the newly launched brand, Abhinav Kumar, co-founder of Brand Concepts Limited told ETRetail.
During phase 1 of the expansion of the brand, Brand Concepts plans to open 5 EBOs and also expand the presence in the shop-in-shop format at 40 Shoppers Stop stores and it will also be opening in 20 out of 48 Bagline stores.
Along with expanding its retail presence, it will also be designing, developing, and manufacturing merchandise, marketing, building the digital presence of the brand, and collaborating with celebs and influencers.
Explaining the idea behind bringing the brand to India, he said, “There is a white space in the premium bridge-to-luxury handbag category in India and Juicy Couture fits there perfectly. And with the growing affluent class in the country, many international brands are eyeing to enter the Indian market.
The brand’s first store is opening in Lucknow’s Phoenix Palassio Mall and it further eyes to open stores in metro and tier I cities. The ideal store size of the brand will span across 600-700 sq.ft with a CAPEX investment of Rs 1 crore.
While discussing the location strategy, he said, “Instead of high-streets, we prefer to open stores of Juicy Couture in malls. All the stores of the brand will be company-owned and company-operated and we will be opening stores in cities like Mumbai, Delhi/ NCR, Chandigarh and Kolkata.”
Initially, the brand is launching with 120 SKUs of handbags and accessories and plans to take it to 250 SKUs by expanding the category options at the stores by May.
“We plan to offer a wholesome experience to consumers. We are also bringing in the other categories in these stores like velour suits, fragrances, candles, and socks to name a few,” he said.
Juicy Couture will also be available on various marketplaces like Tata Cliq Luxury, Ajio Luxe and Myntra Luxe.
“By the end of FY 26, we are eyeing Juicy Couture to contribute at least 5 per cent of the overall revenue of the company. Eventually, in the next three years, we are eyeing it to contribute a 10 per cent share of our overall portfolio,” he asserted.
Currently, 50 per cent of the revenue of Brand Concepts comes from the travel gear category, accessories contribute 43 per cent and the remaining 7 per cent is contributed by handbags.
Going ahead, the company is focusing on increasing the share of the handbag category, so along with launching Juicy Couture handbags and accessories in India, Brand Concepts plans to expand its portfolio further by launching a couple more brands in the luxury and super-premium categories.
Numbers and Financials
The company, which was planning to hit a milestone of 100 stores by FY 26, has changed its strategy and is back to the drawing board to redesign the entire Bagline experience for consumers by opening larger format stores.
“In the past few months, we have gone a little slow on expansion due to low market sentiments. Currently, our store sizes are between 400-500 sq.ft and we plan to take them up to 1,500 sq ft. We also plan to open a flagship store spanning across a 2,500 sq.ft area,” he explained.
“As soon as we have this new format ready, we want to first experiment with 4-5 large format stores and once back on track, we plan to push the pedal further,” he further added.
The company, which is associated with 30 distributors, gets 56 per cent of its revenue from offline channels and the remaining 44 per cent is contributed by various online channels.
The company, after experiencing degrowth will be closing this fiscal with Rs 525 crore in retail sales, is eyeing to make a comeback with 20-25 per cent growth in the coming fiscal.
“Annually, our same-store sales growth has also seen a 10 per cent decline as it has not been a good year for retail,” he stated.
Founded in 2007, Brand Concepts’ portfolio of brands includes Tommy Hilfiger Travel Gear, United Colors of Benetton, The Vertical, Aeropostale, Sugarush, and Juicy Couture.
