We are doubling our manufacturing and warehouse capabilities
Lavie was born out of a dream to create an avant-garde range of handbags for the free-spirited culture to be adorned by today's women who reflect the tomorrow. With a confident aesthetic sense to suit any occasion, Lavie’s every design is crafted as a style testament to every woman who wishes to announce her arrival in life. Speaking to Fibre2Fashion, CEO Ayush Tainwala discusses the brand and their future plans.
How was Lavie born? How has the brand evolved since its inception?
Lavie’s story started when Mrs. Tainwala identified a gap in the market for world class bags that cater to confident and independent women. Inspired from the vibrant landscapes across Europe and Asia, using the finest materials and unparalleled Indian craftsmanship, Lavie was born. The name and brand colours are derived from the popular French Phrase La Vie En Rose which means ‘Life in Pink Hues’.
Today Lavie is India’s largest and most loved handbag brand that has propelled into becoming an industry leader and has found itself in the wardrobes of B-town celebrities like Anushka Sharma, Kareena Kapoor, Malaika Arora, Athiya Shetty, Kangana Ranaut, Gauahar Khan, Jannat Zubair, along with influencers like Aashna Shroff, Kritika Khurana, Juhi Godambe, Santoshi Shetty and many more.
What is the design process at Lavie?
Lavie offers better designs at better prices than any other brand. It offers handcrafted, innovative designs and highest quality handbags. Lavie has a 5-stage design and development process that includes:
1) Inspiration - Deriving Inspiration from culture, people and places
2) Designing - Designing of bags followed by a digital version
3) Sourcing - Globally sourcing the richest fabrics
4) Create - Every product is crafted by the hands of master craftsmen
5) Quality Check - Every product goes through a series of quality checks.
Which are your best-selling product categories?
Our selling price range of handbags is from ₹900 to ₹3,000. Lavie’s Totes and Occasion range are hero products.
What are the future plans at Lavie? What is the sales target set for the next two years?
We will be more product centric and plan to launch 200+ new products in 2023. We are also planning to open around 500 EBOs (exclusive brand outlets). We will be investing ₹100 crore to double our manufacturing and warehouse capabilities.
For 2022-23, we forecast a 60 per cent revenue jump, and in the process create direct and indirect employment for 2,500+ people.
How did you manage to make Lavie a ‘Made in India’ brand with global appeal?
Lavie recovered faster than any of its competitors in 2020, generating double the revenue compared to pre-COVID-19 with a hike in the customer loyalty rate while making world-class handbags. A sudden shift in the market compelled the brand to create products in India. Lavie today has a state-of-the-art R&D and manufacturing facility. Spread across 5 acres, 150,000 sq. ft, it is the largest integrated facility in Southeast Asia. From product development and to quality assurance, Lavie is equipped with the latest machinery like fabric checking machine, mileage testing machine, colour cabinet, drop testing machine, etc to enable a smooth production process in its own country.
What are some trends in women’s handbags in terms of materials, textures, trims, colours, and accessories?
Lavie’s TG (target group) typically owns more than 5 bags each and loves a clear distinction between formal, casual and occasion. Lavie creates designs by focusing on the latest industry trends. Lavie’s TG loves Totes and Laptop bags in dark and earthy hues for formal use, pastel and multi-compartment satchels for casual use. Small-sized clutches, slings and potlis for occasion wear, and backpacks, large sling for travel purpose. Glossy croco and pebble textured handbags are preferred.
What is the inspiration for the latest collection?
Recently, Lavie launched its exclusive Monogram collection inspired by trends of global fashion houses. The brand also plans to introduce premium products under the name of Lavie Luxe by June 2023.
LAVIE SPORT – Lavie Sport makes unisex range of school bags, laptop backpacks, gym bags, travel duffels and men’s accessories. The essence of the brand is to design products that enable an active lifestyle. Lavie Sport offers products designed with features that would suit women’s usage requirement whilst looking good and maintaining the highest quality. Every Lavie Sport product comes with a manufacturer warranty. Lavie Sport backpacks and duffle bags are very uniquely designed and super lightweight, built for high performance. The new range of backpacks from LAVIE SPORT is available in varied colours like black, maroon, navy, etc. This new range by LAVIE SPORT has amazing storage capacity and multiple compartments which makes it more convenient and secure compared to other backpacks.
Which points of sales have worked well for Lavie?
Both offline and online have worked very well for us.
What is the size of women’s handbag market? What is your share in it?
The size of women’s handbag market is around ₹7,000 crore and growing. We have about 8-10 per cent share of the organised market.
