Discount works well for Cotton County

PUNE: Players in the retail apparel segment have learned a lesson from the crowded Indian market — it’s cheaper and more effectively adopting a discount strategy than appointing expensive brand ambassadors. Cotton County, a men’s wear brand from Nahar Retail, which is a subsidiary of Nahar Industrial Enterprises Ltd (NEIL), is using this strategy to good effect, offering `buy two, get four free’ on its products.

“Effectively, it means a 67% discount and we know this will give us net profit margins of 7-8%, unlike those who sell at the maximum retail price (MRP) and have net profit margins of 17-18%. But it is a better strategy than getting a brand ambassador, because this ensures us a repeat footfall,” Sachin Sahni, associate vice president, sales and marketing, Nahar Retail Ltd, said.

Cotton County, a two-year old label, is banking on the growth in retail and the awareness about branded garments especially in the Hindi heartland, where it is planning to add most of its 250 new franchisee stores this fiscal. This will double its exclusive franchisee network, from 258 now to 500.

It is currently rolling out a women’s range of clothing, Cotton County Femme, to be followed by a kid’s range, Cotton County Tazo. The aim is to eventually have a Cotton County family store, at which point they could separate into special stores.

Having added accessories to its men’s wear range, it is looking at adding towels for the family store.
Along with widening its product range, it is also tapping other price points, via the French Republic premium priced men’s wear and Cotton County Alpha, launched a fortnight ago, in the entry level price bracket. Currently, these are men’s only range.

“The Cotton County Alpha range is a fixed price range, which offers shirts at Rs. 299 and there are no discount schemes on it. Next week, we launch trousers in this category, at Rs. 349 per pair,” Mr Sahni said. He added, “Denim is a very big segment in India, with 40 lakh pairs of jeans sold every month, most of them unbranded.

We are targeting this segment through a tie up with MTV, the music channel. Jeans will also feature in our premium range, French Republic, where also we offer the discount pricing.”