Business

Aditya Birla Fashion Enters Innerwear Market

Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Ltd. has forayed into the Rs.7,000 crore men's premium innerwear and athleisure (casual clothing such as yoga pants, sweat pants, etc) market by introducing a new range under the Van Heusen brand name. To begin with, the garment range will be available in three southern cities of Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad. After two months, the company plans to introduce the range in key markets across India.

Double-digit growth

"The expansion into the two new categories is a strategic progression of the brand," said Ashish Dikshit, Business Head, Madura F&L, Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail. "We see big business opportunity in these segments which are growing at a healthy double-digit and this will significantly contribute to the leadership position of the company," he said. He did not quantify the revenue from this segment.

The innerwear sales in India are growing 13-14% a year and the premium segment of the market is growing even faster, wherein the market has a lot of potential for growth in coming years. The fast growing category of athleisure is an emerging space of multi-purpose wear that goes from "gym to street to couch", and the company is betting big on this.

"Once retailers understand their customer segment, they look out for newer opportunities to increase the size of the wardrobe of their customers," said Kumar Rajagopalan, CEO, Retailers Association of India. "The introduction of a new product line is a great way to create value," he said.