Arvind Fashions to launch VF Corporation's Wrangler in India

Prachi Joshi Johar

agencyfaqs!

BANGALORE, October 20

Global leader VF Corporation is all set to launch its Wrangler brand of jeans in India. Arvind Fashions has secured the licence to manufacture and market the brand in the country. The Wrangler range that Arvind plans to launch would also consist of chinos and a special range of outdoor clothing under its Trail sub-brand. The range of jeans and pants is complemented with a collection of shirts, T-shirts and accessories. The fabric used will be pincords, twills, indigos, yarn-dyed checks and linens.

Arvind Fashions, a subsidiary of Arvind Mills, has set up a manufacturing plant in Bangalore with technical support from VF Corporation. The 10,000 square feet plant has a manufacturing capacity of one million pairs of jeans. The company plans to increase the production capacity to two million pairs in the next two years.

The company has invested Rs 360 million in the venture and has assigned a marketing and promotion budget of Rs 4 crore for the Wrangler range.

The Wrangler jeans collection is being launched at prices starting from Rs 995. The company plans to sell the entire range through its 37 exclusive showrooms and 12 leading departmental stores like Shoppers' Stop, Crossroads, Globus, Lifestyle, Kempfort etc. Plans are underway to increase the number of retail outlets to 70 by the end of this year.

Arvind Fashions' Lee brand has a significant 35 per cent share in the 1.1 million units premium jeans market. The company is hopeful of taking this share up to 50 per cent in two years time with the Wrangler range.

The Wrangler initiative of Arvind comes at a time when the jeans market in India is leapfrogging at a steady 12-15 per cent annually. While the premium segment of the jeans market grew at 8-10 per cent last year, the cheaper brands are estimated to have grown at a slightly higher rate. To put things into perspective, around 30 million pairs of jeans are sold every year in India, of which close to 25 million pairs fall in the mass market segment.

While announcing the Wrangler launch, Govind Mirchandani, president, Arvind Fashions, told newsmen, "The jeans market is growing not just in India but in the neighbouring countries of Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal too. We are studying other markets as there is a resurgence in the jeans market all over again in the US and in Europe."

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