India’s home-bred lingerie brand ‘PrettySecrets’ is expecting to close the current year with over twofold growth in its offline distribution. Originally an online venture, the brand had decided to switch to the omni-channel retail model in early 2017 and has been growing quite remarkably across both offline and online channels.
“The brand is looking at expanding its offline channel,” PrettySecrets Founder and CEO Karan Behal told PTI in an interaction, adding, “We are looking to reach 60 exclusive brand stores by end of this year. We are also increasing the number of retail counters where our products are sold to over 600.”
Markedly, the fashion retail brand’s existing offline presence consists of 23 exclusive stores and around 250 retail counters. Currently, the company feeds its retail counters through six distributors and plans to appoint seven more this year to further expand its pan-India reach.
About expansion financing strategy, Behal was quoted as saying that they are constantly in contact with venture capital (VC) and private equity (PE) players. “We will need capital; however, we are looking at debt options at this point in time,” he told.
In a span of six years, PrettySecrets has raised Rs. 55 crores in multiple rounds of PE investment from marquee investors, including Orios Venture Partners, RB Investments, Indian Angel Network, HBS Alumni India Angels and India Quotient.
The PrettySecrets Chief reportedly also stated that ‘the company is expected to break-even by October 2018’.
Not long ago, the brand had announced its plans to have 300 exclusive stores across India by 2019. Importantly, franchising being the cornerstone of its growth strategy, the label, however, has a couple of company-owned outlets as well.
What’s more, international expansion is also on cards this year. Notably, PrettySecrets’ products are already retailed in the UAE and South East Asia through e-commerce portals, namely Souq.com and Lazada.com.
Incepted in 2012, PrettySecrets is touted as the fastest-growing lingerie brands in India today. The brand’s portfolio consists of 1200+ products including lingerie, nightwear, activewear, swimwear and shapewear.
The brand’s arch-rivals Zivame and Clovia, who also started out as online lingerie brands, too have gone offline, taking the contest up a notch. It will be interesting to see who leads the pack in the coming days.
