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“India can never lose its culture or costume”

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With a view to providing an organised retail platform for Indian ethnicwear products at par with western brands in the country, Kishore Biyani-led Future Group recently opened the first store of its newly launched retail chain ‘Ethnicity’ in Ahmedabad. Spread across an area of around 25,000 square feet, the store retails a wide range of products across ethnic and fusion wear, handicrafts, home décor, accessories and gifts. In an exclusive tete-e-tete with Indiaretailing, Hemang Savla, concept head, Ethnicity and Kurta Co, shares his views surrounding the concept, viability and future prospect of ‘Ethnicity’. Excerpts:

IR: How do you define ethnic?
HS: Ethnic is a form in which we define our origin and culture.

IR: At a time when more and more Indians are being lured by western products, launch of Ethnicity seems defiant to the concept.
HS: Absolutely not. Being western could be a part of lifestyle but no one losses their originality completely. In fact, India can never lose its culture or costume entirely as it forms a part of our heritage and has evolved over an era with the development of civilisation.

IR: Who are your target customers? Does that include NRIs as well?
HS: Everyone above the age of four years. Ours is a fashion lifestyle store which offers something for everyone. This can be in conjugation with any ceremony, ritual or event.

However, NRIs are our special focus because they like something exclusive.

IR: What are products in the basket of this innovative concept?
HS: The store offers wide collections of ethnic and fusion wear, jewellery, handicrafts, home decor, beauty products, accessories and gifts. However, our USP is localised packaging, like for Gujarat, where we made a maiden launch of the concept, it has Gujarati packaging. The same will hold true with north and east India once we will foray there.

IR: Why Gujarat as the first platform to launch Ethnicity?
HS: Future Group, the parent company of Ethnicity, has a lot of relevance in Gujarat and we enjoy strong presence in the state with all our formats. Besides, a large number of NRIs over here translate into strong customer traffic.

IR: How do you source the products available in your outlet?
HS: Ethnicity is aimed at providing a platform for smaller Indian brands and ethnic products. After deciding the product category, we work on partnership with Indian companies providing the products.

IR: We are known for unity in diversity. Is it possible that all the products that are prevalent in India can be accommodated in one store?
HS: It is a nice thought but technically not possible. Reason: To source and display products representing and catering to a culture as vast as ours, even one lakh square feet will not be enough.

IR: How has the concept fared since its inception?
HS: Acceptance has been phenomenal. Firstly, because it’s a family store and customers can bring along even their grandparents to enjoy shopping. Secondly, it has a much differentiated product category because generally ethnic stores are predominant with clothing, but in our store, clothing occupies only 60 percent of the collection, which makes it distinct from others.

IR: What are your expansion plans?
HS: We plan to open eight stores in various cities in a span of two years. While four of these stores will be standalone, the rest will be in some other innovative and bigger formats, say 20,000 square feet.

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