Thaindian News

Chennai, Dec 10 (IANS) Italian menswear brand Boggi Milano, which has a 140 million euro turnover, is planning to source garments from Indian manufacturers for its global markets, a senior official said.

An Italian team is expected to be here in February to take a final call on the matter.

“We are holding discussions with garment makers in Puducherry, Tirupur and in north India for sourcing textile and leather garments. Boggi Milano’s sourcing head will be here in February and a decision will be taken then,” Anand Nair, Brand Head of DLF Brands Ltd that has tied up with Boggi Milano, told IANS here.

“For Indian operations we currently import the garments from Portugal, Bulgaria and other places. However, the fabric for the garments is Italian,” he said.

Sourcing within the country will also help to reduce the cost for Indian operations as DLF Brands plans to take up the number of Boggi Milano stores to 35 in three year’s time from the current eight outlets - five in the national capital region of Delhi, and one each in Kolkata, Chennai and Bangalore.

The Italian company came to India in 2008, joining hands with DLF group and the joint venture has opened eight outlets till date.

“Our plan is to set our footprint in cities like Pune, Hyderabad and Mumbai early next year. In Mumbai we plan to have two stores next year and in Chennai we plan to open two more stores in two years time,” Nair said.

According to him, the company has no plans to go the franchisee route now and all the stores will be owned.

In line with the Italian company’s global strategy of having a store at airports, DLF Brands too plans to have Boggi Milano outlets in Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad airports.

“Compared to malls, the footfalls in airport stores are more and sales are also good. In airports, the travellers are in a ‘hostile’ environment - can’t go out, confined to the terminal till they board the flight. When flights are delayed people drop into our stores,” he said.

For Boggi Milano the average bill size at airport outlets is Rs.5,500 while in other outlets it is around Rs.4,000.

“At the airport outlets the inventory is more tuned towards impulse as well as urgent purchases,” Nair said.

Declining to share the current revenue the Boggi Milano brand generates in India, Nair said the company is hopeful of touching 10 million euros revenue in three years’ time.

“Our target clientele are in the age bracket of 25-45 who are CEOs, entrepreneurs and top corporate executives,” he said.