Madura Garments to invest Rs400 crore on Peter England stores

Mumbai: Aditya Birla Nuvo's Madura Garments, which looks after the wholesale garments business, has planned a five-year retail strategy to expand its business four-fold from Rs1,320 crore curently to Rs6,000 crore in 2012. Accordingly, it plans to enhance its retail presence with a Rs400-crore investment in the 90 Peter England People family stores.

Kumar Mangalam Birla, chairman, Aditya Birla Group, has outlined the group's vision to be ''India's dominant fashion apparel retailer, for which the company is now restructuring the apparel business into three better manageable divisions catering to the mass, premium and luxury segments.

Peter England will cater to the the mass-premium segment, and there would be a separate chain for the luxury segment. Some time ago, Madura Garmets had launched a brand extension of the Peter England brand with the launch of Peter England Elite (See: Peter England moves into the Elite league)

Vikram Rao, business director for textiles and apparels at Aditya Birla Group said that Peter England People would mark the company's foray into large-format retail for family apparels, followed by a foray into the luxury lifestyle before the end of this year. The luxury stores would host men's apparel across multiple luxury brands, and the company plans to open around 10-15 outlets by year end.

This entry into retail across formats is being done with a view to gradually reduce the company's dependence on its wholesale garment business and enhance its revenues from retail from the existing 10 per cent to around 80 per cent, while in the process realising its vision of being amongst the top three retailers in the country over the next three to five years.

To implement this, the only option that the Aditya Birla Group has ruled out is that of a partnership with an international retailer, while keeping its options open for acquisitions, and organic growth.

Aditya Birla Retail has investment plans tallying Rs9,000 crore for its pan-India operations. The company already operates 550 food and grocery stores, two big-format, and hypermarkets under brand More. Madura Garments has 250 flagship stores that house its brands including Louis Philippe, Van Heusen, Allen Solly and Peter England.