Kishore Biyani-led Future Group, a prominent player in the Indian retail and fashion sector, is planning to open as many as 35 standalone FBB apparel stores in the fiscal year starting this April. Last year, the retailer opened 53 FBB stand-alone outlets and also sells its products within 282 Big Bazaar hypermarkets. Also, FBB is mulling to slash its entry price points by around 4-5 per cent to woo customers.
“We’ve done a lot of work over the last couple of years on our categories, assortment, sourcing and quality. So we are there now. We have a very large scale, we have the back-end sorted to a large extent and I think it’s time to leverage on that,” Rajesh Seth, FBB’s Chief Operating Officer told a leading daily.
The upcoming stores will be bigger in size as compared to the existing ones. The average size of existing FBB stores varies from 9,000-12,000 sq. ft., the newer ones will be bigger at 12,000-15,000 sq. ft. The Group is planning to explore more on kidswear which is seen as an unorganized sector despite immense potential. Currently, FBB’s most expensive products cost around Rs599-699. Dearth of affordable brands in kids section has made the retailer realize to invest in this section.
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Kidswear currently accounts for around 20-22 per cent of FBB’s business (55 per cent girls, 45 per cent boys). Women’s wear contributes around 35-40 per cent and the rest come from men’s wear.
