The lingerie category in India has broadened from basic requirement of commodity wear to designer wear with emphasis on styling and comfort.
According to a Technopak Study, “Women’s lingerie segment is poised to grow at an impressive growth rate of 12 percent over the next decade to reach Rs 56,364 crore by 2027 from current market size of Rs 18,454 crore.”
“Women’s relationship with lingerie has really changed in the last few years and people have started realising that it is more than an innerwear and it gives them confidence and feeling that they are in control of it,” says Preeti Gupta, COO, Enamor.
She further adds, “It is probably likely that in the next five years, we will see the change to be significantly higher as women get more and more aware of outerwear for example dresses were not present five years back and similarly if you see five years ahead, people will be wearing a lot more experimental clothes and are going to be lot more concious about their innerwear.”
Forseeing the increasing demand of premium lingerie wear among Indian women, Enamor was launched in 2003. The focus of the brand was to introduce a range of lingerie exclusively made for the Indian woman. Back then, only a few brands catered to the women of the upper society. With the fast growing economy, there was a definite need for premium lingerie.
Elaborating on the USP of the brand, Gupta says, “We are considered as a premium lingerie wear brand because we are priced around Rs 1,000 – Rs 1,500.”
“We started as a French collaboration brand and we were positioned as a beautiful inside brand and since then there has been no looking back, we are the number one lingerie brand in India today whether you look at MBOs, we are by far the largest brand there in the premium space and it has been good going but that does not mean that it will stop us from doing even better and which is the whole reason for us focussing on our EBOs and see what we can do behind it,” adds Gupta.
Retail Mapping
At present, Enamor has around 4,500 points of sale across the country. The brand has 14 EBOs and plans to the takr the total count to 27 by the end of this financial year.
“Currently, we are concentrating on cities like Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru. Delhi is a prime area of focus for us right now. We are in the process of opening three franchise store and look forward to open more such stores,” states Gupta.
The capex involved for a high-street store spreading across 500-700 sq.ft is around Rs 20-25 lakh.
“We are present only in malls, we have one store which is actually not high-street, it is a discount store but we are looking on how we can add high-street especially in areas like Delhi where the number of malls is really limited,” reveals Gupta.
Elaborating on how Enamor stores are different from that of other lingerie brand stores, Gupta says, “We have tried to give a premium experience to our consumers. Our stores are really fancy and boast of a semi-private lounge area, private fitting rooms which are twice the size of changing rooms, a special fit assistant who has been trained by the head office team to ensure that all women get their best fit.”
At present, Enamor has two factories and about 80 percent of the overall production happens in these factories whereas rest 20 percent is imported.
Future Plans
Enamor, which is also present online, does not believe in the discounting policy. Currently online contributes less than 10 precent to the the overall revenue.
“By the end of this fiscal, we are looking at 30 percent plus growth and we will be putting around Rs 4-5 crore capex for expanding,” concludes Gupta.
