Voonik to focus on private labels to turn profitable, go public by 2019

BENGALURU: Fashion e-tailor Voonik, which recently said it had turned EBITDA profitable, now plans to focus on private label brands to become profitable and go public by 2019. The Bengaluru-based company, which reported revenue of Rs117 crore for 2016-17, had launched its private label for women six months ago and for men a month ago, which together contribute 10-15% to the revenue.

“We expect these brands to contribute almost 50% by the end of this year,” Sujayath Ali, co-founder of Voonik, told ET.



He said that Voonik aims to create affordable brands through its private labels and cater to lower segments across the country.

The company, which employs 170 people, plans to expand its team by 30 members.

While metro cities contribute 30% to Voonik’s traffic, tier II and tier III cities account for the majority 70%. Ali said that Ola and Uber drivers, and lab technicians form a major customer segment from metro cities.

Ali said that the private label designs will be based on popular designs and will be automatically matched and printed accordingly. Eventually, with the increase in sales, the variety and number of labels will be increased, he said. “In the next four months we look to see profitable growth, primarily in our fledgling private labels business,” he said.

Meanwhile, the company is running a pilot with offline stores in smaller cities.