Pantaloon plans to sport a more youthful look  ( June '4,2004, ET)

Age ain’t just a number, especially when the accent for the future is on the young.

In a move to change its core apparel target group to a younger age band, Pantaloons, the lifestyle retail format of retail major Pantaloon Retail (India) will spend Rs 2 crore this year to re-establish and rejuvenate its existing apparel brands and an additional Rs 1 crore on its upcoming brands.

Mr Jaydeep Shetty, chief-new business lifestyle retailing, Pantaloon Retail told ET that the company wanted to change its focus apparel group from the present 25-40 year-olds to the 16-30 year age group. As part of its strategy, it will launch - Leon, its first lounge wear line. “We expects sales of Rs 6-Rs 8 crore in the first year itself,” he said. The brand is expected to hit stores by August-end, this year. He added that the company will also extend its overall apparel portfolio to gradually fill in varied interest group gaps.

The mood for the year ahead is: better brand positioning, brand visibility and a strong emphasis on licensing as a route to penetrate the Indian apparel market. While declining to share specifics, Mr Shetty revealed that the company was in the process of entering into licensing agreements with a popular European sportswear brand and a casual wear brand from the Far East. “In about two years we expect about 10-15% of the turnover to accrue from licensed brands,” he said. Recently the company brought in UMM, a teenage-wear brand targeted at music lovers from the stable of Italian apparel major Moda & Musica.

The overall strategy for the apparel brands, he said, was to gain a larger chunk of the consumer market and to increase its conversion rate (actual footfalls to sales) from the existing 30%-35% to about 45%-50%. Pantaloons, part of the company’s lifestyle business has till date positioned itself as “India's family store” and focused on creating clothing for the entire family. However, the modus operandi, said Mr Shetty would not just mean a change in the brand but also in the product development strategy.

“Range and assortment planning for each brand will simultaneously be more stringent and converge on a more narrowly defined target customer group,” he added. Pantaloons’ (the lifestyle retail format) turnover for nine months of the current fiscal ending March 31, 2004 was Rs 156.56 crore. For the last fiscal, 2003 it recorded a turnover of Rs 173.96 crore.

Officials are predicting 30% growth for the current fiscal.