Apparel and accessories brand Cantabil India is planning to open around 150 retail stores by the end of this financial year. A majority of these stores will be located in the southern and eastern parts of the country. Cantabil India is a part of Italian fashion brand Cantabil.
“We plan to add 50 new stores for Cantabil and 100 new stores for our co-brand Lafanso,” says Vijay Bansal, managing director of Cantabil India, to Financial Chronicle.
A large number of stores would be opened through the franchisee model. “The prime consideration for us is location. If franchisees come up with a good location for the store, we will go for the franchisee store,” he says.
Speaking on brand initiatives, Bansal said that Cantabil was consciously being positioned as a discount brand store wherein customers were offered various discounts throughout the year. He added that the increasing sales figures in this financial year was one reason for the company going ahead with its expansion plans. The sales figures are up by 10 per cent from those witnessed in the last financial year.
The company had, in the beginning of this financial year, announced that it would open around 280 stores by the end of March 2010. “We had planned to aggressively enter tier-II towns of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, but have now decided to go slow on these cities as we still do not understand the tastes and preferences of consumers in tier-II towns,” informs Bansal.
The company is planning new stores in Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Gwalior and Siliguri, among others. “We also plan to have presence in Kerala and would like to open stores in Thiruvananthapuram, Calicut and Kochi,” he further adds. Cantabil India, at present, operates 200 stores for its Cantabil brand and 175 stores for its Lafanso brand. The new stores would be located over an area of 500 to 2,000 sq ft.
Source: Financial Chronicle
