Hasbro Clothing's, 'Basics Life,' 'Genesis,' and 'Probase,' To Expand Across The Globe

Hasbro Clothing mulls increasing store count
February 16, 2010 (India)

Now that the slowdown is showing sign of withering away, many apparel retailers are mulling plans to increase their pan-India presence. Hasbro Clothing, a leading men’s garment and accessories producer too is keen to ramp up it store count by launching 25 more ‘Basics Life’ stores in the next fiscal year (2010-11).

Hasbro offers men’s clothing under three main brands; ‘Basics 029’, ‘Genesis’ and ’Probase’ and currently operates 50 stores, of which 28 are franchisee owned and the rest company owned exclusive brand outlets (EBOs).

Apart from the launch of 25 additional stores in India, Hasbro is planning to open a 1,200 sq ft. International expansion includes franchisee store in Qatar in the Middle-East in another two months. It also has stores in Sri Lanka and Maldives islands where it has a sizeable export business. But since it sees great potential in the domestic markets, it plans to concentrate on the same.

Fibre2fashion spoke exclusively to Mr Hanif Sattar, Director of the Chennai based Hasbro Clothing, who said, “The total number of stores that we plan starting today till end of March 2011 is 25 stores and the reason to have a buffer of February and March of this year is primarily to factor the delays that we encounter in locations being handed over by the developers/ landlords over which we have no control.”

He continued by saying, “The locations are spread over the four states in the south, apart from which we will target Maharashtra and West Bengal and the spread in these states will be an equal blend of metro and "A" & "B" towns.”

When asked about the objectives of opening stand-alone stores, he replied by saying, “The reason for opening stand-alone stores is to be clearly able to offer a lifestyle solution in the men’s apparel branded space, as our primary aim is to provide tremendous value to the customer and not necessarily in the conventional manner by just being conscious of costs but blending this aspect with an experience which is clearly world class.”

“This will also result in that when a customer walks into the store there is a marked difference in what he experiences both in shopping environment and in product/ range offering as opposed to the other brands in the same space, with all this leading to heightened brand awareness and uniqueness of the store and the brands that it sports in comparison to what is available in the market.

"Benchmarking of retail experience, leading to enquiry for opening more such stores in new territories, enquiry for selling the brands in leading Mbo's and preparedness in terms of selling points which will capitalize media spend”, he concluded by saying.