We plan to open 50 outlets in 24 months
Breya is a brand of Indo-Western clothes for women owned by ABP Apparels Pvt Ltd. The brand is run by a team of four young professionals motivated to provide the best of designs and bring a difference to everyday womenswear. Breya retails through its 13 exclusive brand outlets in eight cities across India along with its online store and over 100 multi-brand outlets. Co-founder Pratik Agarwal shares the brand's retail journey since its inception and the action plan for the next two years.
How was Breya set up, who are the founders, what was the initial seed money, and what were the milestones achieved?
Breya was started by Tanvi Agarwal, Bikash Agarwal, Abhinav Tongia and Pratik Agarwal. Tanvi and Bikash have been in the women's apparel business for the past eight years, while Abhinav and Pratik have worked with the Investment Bank Avendus Capital for five years before starting Breya.
We opened our first exclusive offline store in Hyderabad in 2017. The response and feedback that we got for our collection was overwhelming and has since expanded to Bhopal, Siliguri, Jamshedpur, Bhubaneshwar and Guwahati. We currently have 13 exclusive brand outlets in eight cities. These are a mix of franchise and company-owned outlets. We have also built a distributor network across key states to target large multi-brand outlets (MBOs). We are currently present in over 100 MBOs in more than 30 cities. We are also seeing good traction from our own website (www.breya.in), mainly driven by customers visiting our physical stores. The initial seed money came from the founders and friends.
How many collections are made in a year? How many styles in each collection?
Every year, we launch two collections-spring/summer and autumn/winter. We bring over 250 designs in each of these collections and we work around the theme for specific collections. . For example, our collection 'Tick Tack Toe', which is one of the three themes of our Autumn/Festive collection, is an ode to our childhood memories of board games such as snakes & ladder and ludo. We wanted to invoke childhood memories in our customers, when they were dressed in this attire. Similarly, we have brought Vintage gardens and Hiraeth theme collections that were a tribute to the famous gardens around the world and Indian architecture respectively.
Which price points fare well at Breya?
Majority of our collection is in the range of ₹800-1500 and this has worked quite well for us. During festive season, the price range for the festive collection increases to ₹1,500-3,500.
Why did you choose to venture into the women's Indo-Western niche? What is the size of the global market in this category?
Indutva's or women's ethnicwear is the largest market segment by size in the women's clothing space and comprises a wide variety of players. However, we were able to identify a huge white space (customer need) in terms of design that was not catered to by any of the existing players-a segment that we have coined as the 'modern ethnic' segment. The modern indutva is all about simple, elegant and smart designs incorporating elements from latest runway or catwalk trends into Indian silhouettes and designs that today's evolving women want to wear. A few niche designers are present in this segment but these are available at a very premium price point and are meant for occasion or party wear only. Our aim is to bring the aspirational modern ethnic designs to the customer at a very affordable price (₹1,000-₹1,500) and make them available for everyday use.
The total size of women's apparel market is ₹1 trillion, out of which 30 per cent is indutvas and fusionwear. Within this, the branded wear is growing at 15-20 per cent per annum.
Which three factors will shape the Indian womenswear market in the years to come?
The assortment of designs, quality and affordable pricing of the product and technology will be the game changer in the near future.
Which are your major markets?
We have diversified our markets quite a bit in the past 12 months. From having three stores in Hyderabad, we have now expanded to seven more cities like Bhubaneshwar, Bhopal, Jamshedpur and Guwahati. In addition, we are very strong in the south, east and north-east markets through our presence in MBOs channel.
What has the sale been like on your website vis-a- vis the other marketplaces?
Online sales currently contribute 15-20 per cent of our total volume.
Where do you source fabrics and accessories from?
We work with large and reputed fabric manufacturers from various parts of India.
Do you have your own manufacturing units? What is the annual production capacity?
We have our in-house design, sourcing and distribution team; only stitching is outsourced. We work with several production houses for stitching. We currently have an annual capacity of more than 5 lakh units and can scale it up to 10 lakh units.
Which SKU moves faster in Indo-Western clothing for women?
Kurta is the largest category for us, contributing more than 50 per cent of sales. In addition, we are seeing good traction in dresses, tops and tunics, and fashion bottoms as well.
What are your advertising, marketing and promotion plans? What is the budget?
We are currently engaging with customers through social media platforms and in-store experiences. At some stage, we will explore celebrity endorsements and do city-level campaigns. Our marketing budget is 5-10 per cent of our sales.
How big is the design team at Breya? How do you gauge market trends?
Tanvi Agarwal, our creative director at Breya heads the design team. We first understand the forecast trends in prints, silhouettes and colours and then blend these to our own imagination of different stories that our customers can relate to. Each season has over 250 designs across three or four stories.
What are the trends in terms of fabrics, colours, prints, silhouettes and detailing in womenswear?
For everyday wear, organic fabrics like cotton, slub and linen are much in demand. In terms of prints, block and digital prints are doing well. We also do a lot of embroidery-based designs in various cuts and combinations that have been appreciated well by our target audience.
Are there any promotions planned since the market is so crowded?
Given the crowded market, we are focusing more on the quality of campaigns and content being used for marketing, so that it is engaging and relatable for the target audience.
What is the projected turnover by 2020?
We are growing three to four times every year. We will continue building our presence across channels in a qualitative and profitable manner.
What was the turnaround year for the brand? What is your USP?
The USP of the brand is design, quality and price. We have successfully found a unique sweet spot-the right design language for today's modern Indian women that are of high quality in terms of fabric and overall finish and yet at the same time are affordable (₹1000-1500). This sweet spot gives an immense 'value for money' proposition to our product. The most important differentiator, however, is our design language. Tanvi helps in ensuring that the design language is consistent and customers can relate to the identity of the brand.
How has your performance been in the last two fiscals and what are your expectations for the next two?
We have grown by almost ten times in the past two years and expect to continue growing at three to four times every year for the next three years.
What are the challenges that this industry faces?
Steep online discounts and availability of quality retail space are the key challenges that the industry is facing today.
What are your future plans? Do you plan to explore any new markets and expand your product offering? Do you plan to open a brick and mortar store soon?
Over the next 24 months, we plan to open 50 additional outlets to expand presence to 20-25 cities. We have also built a distributor network across key states to target large multi-brand outlets.
In addition, we will continue to build our presence in the MBO channel and online vertical. We are also looking to partner with large format stores in the near future.
We plan to increase the depth of our current product offerings over the next 24 months, rather than venture into other product segments. (HO)
