Discount chain to retail fashion, lifestyle brands  ( March '22,2004, Hindu Business Line)

DISCOUNT pricing in the fashion business has now spawned a retailing start-up. A top official of Arvind Brands, who recently quit, has floated a new venture, Brands & Bargains, which plans to operate discount stores under the name `10'. The first store that opened in the suburbs of Bangalore stocks well-known brands in apparel, watches, footwear and other accessories, making it the first cross-category discount channel for the fashion-conscious consumer in the country.

Mr Y.R. Wilson, former HR Head of Arvind Brands, who also managed the apparel company's foray into factory outlets in the '90s, said he sighted an opportunity for independent discount stores as most fashion brands tend to produce more stocks than they can sell. "Some of these brands didn't have enough factory outlets and some others had no plans to get into it. They needed a channel to liquidate the stocks," Mr Wilson said, while adding that his attempt was to connect this emerging aspect of the retail boom with the growing fascination of youth India to buy into fashion brands.

The 4,000-sq.ft. store that opened a week ago in J.P. Nagar, a Bangalore suburb, stocks apparel brands such as Pepe and Spykar, leading footwear names like Woodland and Roots, and watch brand Timex. Titan is soon expected to enter the outlet as well. According to Mr Wilson, the `10' store will target consumers in the age bracket of 16 to 30 years and offer apparel brands in the price band of Rs 400 to Rs 800 and footwear around Rs 1,000. The location of the first store, J.P. Nagar, has a large catchment area with a resident IT workforce and about 11 colleges in the vicinity.

Mr Wilson said the venture was funded through banks and privately raised capital. It has attracted a small professional team from Metro Cash & Carry and other retailing ventures like Oyzterbay. Apparel merchandise will take more space in `10' and efforts are on to bring in more boutique brands that may find it difficult operating factory outlets. Apparel majors like Madura Garments and Arvind, which operate a chain of factory outlets on their own, are unlikely to step into this new venture. However, Titan, which operates factory outlets under the Value Mart name, is likely to enter with a shop-in-shop sort of arrangement. Mr Wilson remains bullish on the scalability of the venture stating that excess stock on the back of the retail boom needs a channel to reach out to the brand conscious young Indian.