Crocodile Products earmarks Rs 4 crore as ad budget; plans 85 stores by year-end

Crocodile Products Private Ltd (CPPL) - a joint venture between the Singapore-based $2.6-billion Crocodile International Pte and Coimbatore-based Shivrams Associates (which has a 65 per cent equity holding in the company) - has set an ambitious plan for itself. It hopes to establish its presence in up to 85 stores across the country by the year-end, up from 40 currently, and increase its turnover from Rs 27 crore in 2000-2001 to Rs 45 crore in 2001-2002.

Alongside, the Coimbatore-based company has firmed up plans for launching four exclusive outlets in Delhi, three in Mumbai and one each in Jammu, Amritsar, Chandigarh and Ahmedabad by March this year. Venkatesh Sivaraman, managing director, CPPL, said, "Of these (planned 85) stores we will have nearly 40 exclusive galleries. Twenty-three of these will be in the southern part of the country and the balance will be spread across rest of the country." For the records, the Crocodile brand spans menswear and accessories and was launched in the country in 1998.

To support its growth plans, the company has decided to hike its ad budget by more than a crore this year. While its ad budget last year stood a little over Rs 2 crore, this year it would be close to Rs 4 crore. Coimbatore-headquartered Sasi Advertising handles the advertising account of Crocodile. "We will advertise our brand on satellite channels, but this will happen only after our presence is widely established across the country. Right now, we are concentrating on print-led campaigns that would help establish our offering as a premium menswear brand," said Sivaraman.

Sivaraman explained that the growth of the Crocodile brand in recent times has been spearheaded by the expansion of its range to include not just readymade apparel for men but also accessories such as sunglasses and watches. When asked if the company would retain Sasi's services when Crocodile goes national, Sivaraman remarked he was happy with work turned out by the agency so far. He also clarified that though Crocodile was perceived to be a premium brand, its real focus was to capture the SEC A and B+ consumers with its competitive pricing.

Crocodile, oddly, started off in India as a brand of vests and briefs, whose manufacturing unit is in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, located in close proximity of Tiruppur, one of India's top hosiery-making centres. As is typical of all apparel factories of its size in India, the unit uses a combination of machine-intensive production lines for the fabric-cutting and old-style manual workers for the stitching, finishing and packaging.

Now, the company is busy turning out menswear in bulk: T-shirts, shirts, jeans, trousers and casuals. Big brands do not bother it. The reason: the Indian consumer has had his tryst with MNC-driven glamour, and unimpressed with the fancy names, he is now looking for value, regardless of brand name.

Needless to say, Crocodile is priced quite competitively. For instance, its shirts are priced in the range of Rs 400 and Rs 700, in sharp contrast to the premium brands that start off from Rs 750. Its trousers are available in the range of Rs 740 and Rs 990 and T-shirts are priced between Rs 350 and Rs 500, while the double mercerised shirts are priced upwards of Rs 800.

At prices like that, the company was sure of catching the attention of the Indian clothes buyer. The real challenge now is scaling up volumes and then setting up a distribution network that would do justice to Sivaraman's ambitions. © 2002 agencyfaqs!