'Women's wear will fetch at least 40% of our sales'

Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Ltd (ABFRL), which distributes popular western wear brands in India and leads the men’s casual and formal wear market, is set to expand its presence in the women’s wear segment.

- Suneera Tandon, Devina Sengupta

As India’s workforce evolves and social media influences fashion purchases, women are increasingly looking to spend on high-quality clothing. In 2018, ABFRL began broadening its portfolio to include more women’s wear, and on Friday, it revealed plans to buy a controlling stake in women’s ethnic wear retailer TCNS Clothing Co. It will allow ABFRL to grow its ethnic wear business to ₹5,000 crore within three years, primarily driven by women’s wear, said Ashish Dikshit, managing director at ABFRL. Edited excerpts:

What is the larger theme behind the acquisition of TCNS Clothing?

Around 2018, we started examining the big spaces in the industry. We realized the biggest space in the Indian apparel and fashion industry, and around the world, too, is women buying clothes. If you look at our portfolio, much of it is led by menswear-led brands; Pantaloons added a little bit of equivalence, but we are still weak on the brand side.

When we started looking at the Indian women’s market, which is really 40%-plus of the total market, we realized we had practically, no presence. Nearly a third of the overall apparel market, and close to 70% of the women’s market is ethnic wear. In 2018, we had no presence in this segment, and our revenue from this segment was zero (excluding Pantaloons sales). It was then that all things Indian became a matter of pride.