‘We anticipate growth in traditional distribution channels’

There is real muscularity in the way the brand Indian Terrain is growing and the traction it finds, VENKYRAJGOPAL tells Sangeeta Tanwar

VENKY RAJGOPAL Chairman and MD, Indian Terrain Fashions Ltd

From retailing sports clothing for men, Indian Terrain Fashions is now also offering boys’ collection. What has been the consumer and business response to it?

The Indian Terrain boys’ collection has completed four seasons and it is already a ~50crore brand. Two years back, we started with a modest distribution network as we launched our boys’ collection. Initially, we started by retailing boys’ collection from our own exclusive stores. However, we were quick to realise that not many women (moms) were walking into men’s store. We quickly realigned our distribution strategy and started placing boys’ collection in large-format stores. We began by placing our collection in 25 Lifestyle stores and 15 Central stores. Since, then the response to our collection which targets boys in the age-group of four to 14 years has been encouraging.

Indian Terrain retails from 100 point of sales covering mom-and-pop, large-format stores and exclusive branded stores? What is the company’s revenue mix from these channels?

We are a truly nationally distributed player. What’s interesting is that revenue distribution is pretty even for us with the three channels contributing one-third each to the company’s total revenue. We are also available on e-commerce sites including Myntra and Jabong. Here our revenue share is small with online contributing three to four per cent to our revenues. Once we know how to engage with our online channel trade partners smartly, we are hopeful of growing a lot in the e-commerce space as well. Right now, we believe that there is a lot of headroom for growth in the traditional distribution channels.

So, how do you plan to grow your footprint with large-store formats?

Till last year, we have been growing with the large-store formats like Lifestyle. Interestingly, the company is witnessing encouraging growth with Reliance Retail, which is now seen by many more than a sort of mid-level shopping player. We partnered with them by making our collection available from 40 stores last season and this year we are rolling out our brand in another 100 stores. We are doing very well in Reliance Retail stores and the opportunity to grow is phenomenal.

Another quirk for Indian Terrain is that we are the best-selling brand from Pantaloon stores (owned by Madura Garments, the competitor brand). We are soon going to expand our presence in more Pantaloon stores. So, there is a real muscularity in the way the brand Indian Terrain is growing and

the traction it is finding.

What’s holding you back from going all out to expand your presence in multi-branded outlets?

The multi-branded outlets hold the potential to become a large multiplier for our business. We would love to grow it because from the point of view of profitability, multi-branded stores are the best distribution channel. However, we are currently highly underpenetrated in this format. Being a brand based out of south, it is just a matter of finding the right representation and striking the right partnerships in markets such as Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab and Rajasthan. Covering south and west markets is geographically easy for us, we are clearly the No. 1 brand in these regions. Not being able to expand as fast as we would like to is purely a matter of bandwidth.

How different are two markets namely south-west and north?

There is not much of a difference between the two really. The only dissimilarity is that there is no great winter in both regions. The northern sector covering Delhi and Punjab gives the brand an opportunity to sell higher value items like sweaters and jackets. It allows us to make a more complete offering. Meanwhile, west and south with similar weather patterns support demand for much the same product.

What is the biggest challenge facing you?

Over the last 10 years, a number of brands have come and gone. A few of the notable brands that made a splash but failed to scale up include Koutons, Provogue and Siyaram’s. Looking back, the only five or six brands that have been doing well are Allen Solly, Indian terrain, Louis Philippe, U.S. Polo and Indian Terrain.

My only worry is to look out for where the competition is going to come from? Today like many other brands, I’m making sportswear — an American product.