Blue Club, a prestigious and well-known family retail chain for clothing, operates in North Gujarat’s top cities. Harish Bharani, the man with a vision and passion to offer only the best clothing options for the entire family, shares the journey of Blue Clue with with IMAGES Business of Fashion.
The golden journey
Fantastic fashion journey of Blue Club collection is based on joint family and family values. The popular saying – to start an empire you just need dreams, strong will power and plenty of hard work – has been proven true by Harish Bharani, the man behind Blue Club, the biggest family retail store chain in north Gujarat. Bharani was of 14 years when he started with his own business venture in a small village named Kalawad in Saurashtra. He partnered with his three brothers – Paresh, Mahesh and Kailash – to set up a business of selling furnishing fabrics in Kalawad village. He would sell goods on his cycle for nearly six years when in 1989, he decided to set up a hawker at Dr Yagnik Road, Rajkot with complete support of his three brothers. He rented a small shop of 250 sq.ft. at Dr Yagnik Road in 1991 and started selling suits and sherwanis.
The year, 1996, saw the advent of the brand, Blue Club Collection Private Limited, in a 300 sq.ft. shop. Bharani attributes this achievement to the sheer hard work and perseverance of him and his brothers. Later, Blue Club introduced womenswear in 1998, followed by kidswear in the year 1999. During the course of this journey, there was no looking back at any point. The famous Blue Club menswear of 15,000 sq.ft. was launched in 2006, on 3, Jagnath Corner at Rajkot. Today, his legacy of fair and compassionate business is joined by his son, Sunny Bharani.
Presently, the fame of this family store is marked by 10,000 loyal customers, who have the option to shop from a range of more than 200 national and international brands. Bharani shares, “Blue Club is one of the most prestigious and spacious stores in Saurashtra offering a huge variety of clothing article for the entire family. We have extended the stores in different parts of Saurashtra, Gandhidham, Morbi and Jamnagar. Over the years, our focus has been to keep the customers at the core of the entire business. Right now, we are keen to expand in various cities and towns of Saurashtra.”
Company’s growth and the market
There has been steady growth in the company’s profit in the past 10 years. Presently, the company clocks a turnover of Rs. 27 crore from 32,000 sq.ft. of store space including the recently opened outlet at Morbi. Blue Club has witnessed a growth of 65 percent as compared to 2013-14, post the opening of its stores at Morbi and Jamnagar. The company enjoys the goodwill and loyalty of its current base of customers in Rajkot. In fact, the company enjoys maximum share in the market of Rajkot as a reliable and authentic family store. Bharani states that customers in the age bracket of 25-35 years have now become very quick, sharp and sensitive. They have their own sense of dressing and need clothing that gives them a different dressing pattern for every occasion. The elevation in standard of living, higher average income and greater influence of the media has led to accelerated retail market growth.
Customer is the king
For Blue Club, providing outstanding customer service and generating positive customer response is their utmost priority. All their stores are designed and displayed in a fashion that convinces the buyer, encourages instant movement within the store and paves the way for easy access to merchandise. Their customer policy is to handle every buyer with personal touch and attention that eventually leads to loyal and repeated customers.
They also follow the ‘zero question’ policy, where no questions are asked to customers during return of goods or during the complaint, and each customer is given assistance by dedicated executive during the complaint. Apparels being a large category, every store of Blue Club provides a wide range of products and stock keeping units (SKUs) that cover every class of customers and meet their clothing demands.
Blue Club aims at establishing the perception of one-stop solution for clothing for the entire family with amalgamation of both style and exclusiveness. Talking about the consumers’ mindset in current times, Bharani says, “Aspirations of customers are changing across the country. Due to technological shift, everything is available at one’s fingertips and one can even make product comparisons within minutes. This leads to sharp competition across all the channels. The customer is the king in any business; we provide easy alteration, free home delivery, easy return policies and also give out special gifts on birthdays and anniversary.”
Product collection and pricing
Every store of Blue Club offers a wide collection of products under all categories; this makes them a complete one-stop shopping destination for the people of Saurashtra. The company caters to the clothing requirements of all age groups and sexes. As part of their sales strategy, every customer is made to feel comfortable and special, right from the time they step into the store. ‘Promptness’ is the word Bharani uses for his company’s customer service and sales.
For their marketing strategy, they stock a mix of ‘bridge to luxury’ brands that helps to serve customers with wide ranging price-points without compromising on quality and variety. Selection and display of products are done based on the current market trends.
About the stores
Blue Club stores are well-established in Rajkot, Morbi, Gandhidham and Jamnagar yielding a turnover of Rs. 27 crore from total store area of 32,000 sq.ft. The company has registered a growth rate of more than 65 percent compared to 2013-14 since the opening of its stores at Jamnagar and Morbi.
Out of all the categories in the store, apparels are the largest contributor towards revenue generation. They occupy 90 percent of all the store area and generate 95 percent of the sales. The remaining space is shared by other categories such as hand bags, socks and accessories.
The store’s layout has been designed keeping in mind the comfort level and convenience of the customers. Equivalent categories of merchandise are kept together to offer a comprehensive choice to the consumer. The core US P of Blue Club is to provide personal touch to the medium format retailer.
Break-up of sales revenue
Private labels and ethnicwear together contribute around 30 percent; foreign brands contribute around 20 percent; regional and local labels add 40 percent to the overall share; while high fashion and designer labels contribute 10 percent.
Customer loyalty programmes
Sharing his views on customer loyalty programmes, Bharani says, “When we think or talk about loyalty, the first thing that comes to mind is customer loyalty but Blue Club thinks the other way round. We try to be loyal to our consumers by offering them additional benefits. So compared to first-time visitors, the repeated consumer ratio at Blue Club is more than 70 percent. We also organise various activists to keep constant engagement with our consumers.” Blue Club organises events like fashion shows to educate the consumers about latest fashion trends while also guiding them through visual messages. The loyalty quotient among their customers has increased due to such activities of knowledge sharing about products.
Operational efficiency
A significant portion of merchandise sold at Blue Club is procured from domestic markets like Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Ahmedabad and many other cities across India. They have direct sourcing agreements with manufactures who fulfill some of their exclusive requirements; the rest comes from different agents and distributors. Blue Club strives to maintain strong supplier relationship so as to have uninterrupted supply of products.
The company also has a dedicated merchandising team for different categories to have specialised sourcing as per the latest trends in the market. Stock responsibility is given to dedicated people, who source that specific category. At each location, there is a manager who is responsible for inventory status and stock movement. They have even set up a mechanism whereby stock is transferred from one store to another store in case of necessity.
Technology efficiency
Technology is vital in today’s business of retail; any control system can be effectively implemented with the help of technology. Blue Club has implemented specialised software for stock management, inventory control, point of sale (POS) terminal accurate report, and Tally ERP for accounting work. The company’s headquarter at Rajkot manages the sales and stock through this advanced technology. Any information which is fed at any location is updated real-time at the company’s headquarter, which also helps in solving the issues quickly.
Marketing and expansion strategy
The marketing strategy of Blue Club has been crafted after thorough observation of the marketing team. They select the right medium as per the need of the hour. For instance, brand building can be carried on by means of hoardings, but for boosting sales the strategies are different. They use top marketing mediums like TV channels, newspapers, hoarding and radio. Various sales initiatives like giving on-the-spot offers during certain hours at end-of-season-sale, and offering special benefits to privilege card holders as well as to new customers has earned them a dedicated and loyal customer base. In addition, the company does digital marketing through Facebook whereby customers liking their page get additional benefits.
The retail market being highly competitive, they experiment with and adapt new methods of retail operations.
When enquired about their expansion plans, Bharani says that they would definitely expand when there is a lucrative opportunity. Right now they plan to operate omni-channel, including the e-commerce platforms. As far as brick-andmortar stores are concerned, the company plans to open 3 more stores in the next 2 years, including the expansion of Rajkot store.
The HR department
Bharani speaks volumes about his team and fondly says, “My team has played a curial role in the company’s growth process. I would say that my team is the real asset of Blue Club. We have a team of 150 plus employees, who play a major role in the company’s day-to-day functioning. We are truly thankful to them for their hard work and dedication. Some of our team members have been with us for over 5 years now.”
Every store has a manager, who prepares a daily report of sales and stock. The movement part is taken care of by their IT team that coordinates the work process with the respective store manager. This is done to keep the complete sales and stock balance in sync.
Blue Club trains the new employees with basic retail methods and carries out knowledge sharing with them regarding all the products. In addition, the company trains new employees on soft skills, client handling, stock balancing and sales technique.
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