The Children's Place partners with Arvind Brands; to debut in India next year

Mumbai: The Children's Place is coming to India. The largest children's specialty apparel retailer in North America plans to open nearly 50 stores in five years starting mid-2015, in partnership with Arvind Brands.

The deal with Children's Place Retail Stores will help Arvind extend its range of products by targeting a kids' clothing market estimated at Rs 50,000 crore.

The stores to be opened by Arvind's lifestyle retail division will target Rs 500 crore in revenue by 2019.

“A kids apparel brand will complete our portfolio since we already market several brands across segments and price points,“ said J Suresh, chief executive of Arvind Brands.

It intends to use `mass-premium' pricing as part of its marketing strategy for the brand, he said.

“The market, though very large, is highly unorganized and the competitive intensity is less in the branded space,“ Suresh said.

Arvind Brands does an annual business of Rs 1,800 crore by selling more than 28 owned or licensed fashion brands including Calvin Klein, Nautica and US Polo Association through 700 stores in India.

While it sells the children's range of several brands, this is its first association with a firm devoted to just that.

The latest deal comes soon after Arvind Brands finalised a franchisee deal with Gap, the world's second largest apparel brand.