Max India is planning to expand aggressively in tier II & III cities. In an interview, Vasanth Kumar, ED of Max Fashions, talks about the brand’s robust growth rate, omni-channel retailing and its new brand
How Max Fashions has evolved as a brand?
Max, promoted by Dubai-based retail and hospitality conglomerate Landmark Group, is eyeing revenue of Rs 3,000 crore by 2017- 18. Largely a family-format store, Max is a $1.6-billion brand across 17 countries. It operates 190 stores across 75 cities in the country and plans to take the total to 230 stores by 2018-19. We are growing at 32-34 per cent every year. Recently, we have added 90 stores, and planning to add 45 stores this year.
What has been the growth rate of Max Fashions over the last few years? What factors have facilitated this rate?
Till two years back Max was purely a brick and mortar brand, but then we realized that omnichannel is the future and started e-commerce and launched maxfashion.com. Today one and a half per cent contribution of sales comes from e-commerce.
Moving a step ahead in online retail, we are now promoting Max Fashion app. We are offering additional 10 per cent discount on our app purchase. We are witnessing a huge number of loyal customers, who are shopping through our app. Around 33 per cent of our online business is coming through app. We are expecting 50 per cent business via app.
What is your take on franchising in India?
Franchising is the bigger opportunity in India. Around 70 per cent of the Indian market is unorganized. The brand needs partners to organize the 70 per cent unorganized industries. With franchising, the organized market, which is now only 30 per cent, will double to 60 per cent in the next 10 years.
Fashion retail is not an easy ball game, what expertise is required to stand out in the apparel industry?
Fashion has become truly global in India because of global brands that have landed. Southern European brands like Zara, Mango, Northern European brands like H&M and American brands like Forever21 and GAP are present, which means India is a hot spot for these brands. To stay ahead, we have a set of 100 buyers and designers to cater to the Indian taste and aspirations. They adapt collection and styles to suit the Indian market and develop suitable range. We also get inputs from Dubai that is an added advantage for the varied fashion forward and traditional market.
Any plans to franchise these stores?
We franchise for tier II cities, where the franchisee only invests in the fit-outs, manpower and operations are managed by the brand. Around 6-7 per cent of our business is done via our outright franchisees, and over 15 per cent of business is operated via the franchise model because of product complexity. We have launched a new brand Easybuy, which is purely operational via the franchise model.
Tell us about the brand in detail.
Easybuy is the new value format by the Landmark Group. Launched in September 2014 with the objective to create a complete family fashion destination in tier 2 and metro suburbs, the format is targeted at the middle-class Indian customers. To make this vision a reality, Easybuy has embarked on a franchisee partnered business model with stores of size 5000-7000 sq. ft in high street and malls. We have already opened 25 stores of this brand. Easybuy is purely a franchise business model-based brand, which we want to expand in tier II & III cities. We have already opened 25 stores.
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