Aranyani, a luxury fashion brand founded by Haresh Mirpuri is known for its hand-painted, customised, limited edition bags. Every individual product designed by the brand is inspired by nature and brings a unique forest-inspired experience to its world class consumer.
In an exclusive interview with Indiaretailing.com, Haresh Mirpuri, Founder & CEO of Aranyani talks about his brand, his target consumers and expansion plans in the country.
Excerpts from the chat…
Tell us a bit about the brand – its positioning, its core target consumers and main product categories.
The name Aranyani is derived from Rig Veda meaning Queen of the Forest. The brand caters to the fine luxury segment of the market and through its designs, aims to connect man to nature. Nature always provides us with the best quality of everything and that’s where our products stem from. We make our products with utmost care, ensuring the highest possible quality standards.
Anyone who loves to own a piece of art and allows oneself to express one’s own sense of fashion is a customer for Aranyani. We cater to all genders and each and every bag we make is unique – something that no one else will ever own.
Tell us a bit about the history of the group behind the brand. How did the concept of the company come about, who owns it, and who are the promoters?
Aranyani was founded by me and is a part of the PT Sainath Group which manufactures and exports high quality garments to its clients in USA and Europe such as Express, Abercrombie & Fitch, Diesel, etc. I am from Indonesia where the PT Sainath Group – which was founded by my father Shri Mohan N Mirpuri in the late 1970s – has vast manufacturing facilities employing almost 15,000 people. We are now one of the top three garment manufacturing companies in Indonesia with our own laundry, printing and embroidery expertise.
Tell us about your current retail network (numbers and total retail space occupied). What are your retail expansion plans for the next two-three years?
We currently have three stores – in VR Bengaluru, VR Surat and on Church Street in Bengaluru – occupying a total of almost 3,000 sq.ft. space. The brand has just been launched in New York, USA and we are working with several high-end retail boutiques to promote it. The plan is to increase our brand presence steadily in India, in New Delhi and Mumbai, and also internationally in Europe and Asia. Our focus is not to grow only in square feet but to create more interesting forms of art through our product offering.
What are your product and category expansion plans?
We aim to be a lifestyle product and we plan to expand into categories other than bags soon. We train our employees and retail associates for 12 to 18 months before products are released into the market, or before any new launches are planned.
How is the brand different from competitors in the same space?
Aranyani is concentrated on art and aims to create products that are elusive (hard to get). This exclusivity arises from the fact that some of our products are literally just one of its kind. There is no other brand that can boast of the same.
We empower art and artists through our offerings. This is the very form of what we call today ‘Thoughtful Fashion’.
We also offers possibilities for customization which are very much needed during occasions like weddings, at a price far more competitive than any other brand can offer in the world.
What is the kind of market share which the brand is looking forward to occupy and by when?
The brand, being new, is working on building its portfolio to be able to expand into the luxury market.
What are some Omnichannel initiatives that you undertake? What has been your progress through online retail?
We are currently focused on servicing clients through direct retail and private sales and this has been very well received by our customers. The online offering has helped bring traffic to our physical stores and has allowed us to map places of interest for our product offerings.
Tell us about your future growth plans?
The growth of the brand will be driven by the progress we make in training all our associates. Investment in people and knowledge are two key strategies for the moment. Growth is only the result of the same. At Aranyani, we are doing everything we can to enable to do this in the best way possible. Our aspiration is to offer the best products and services all over the world. Through that, we believe that we can spread the true message of us having to always value our nature and treat nature as luxuriously as we would to our possessions. We have to remember that we are only borrowing space on this earth from the future generations.
