Buoyed by the Goods and Services Tax (GST), the city-based women’s ethnic wear brand Span Apparels plans to expand its retail network to southern and eastern states of the country. The company has laid down plans to invest Rs. 100 crore towards massive expansion of retail outlets and setting up a warehouse in Ahmedabad.
“The GST has brought the ease of setting up retail outlets in the other states. Earlier it required complex taxation and documentation. But GST has online systems to get registered and expand businesses in other parts of the country. We plan to increase our presence from currently 25 exclusive outlets to 100 by 2020,” said Tapan Khandhar, Director, Span Apparels.
Set up in 1979, the company also plans to have about 600 large format stores across India from the current 250.
Span has planned to set up a large warehouse with an investment of Rs. 20 crore to accommodate about 5 million pieces. “The location will be Pipalaj near Ahmedabad and we expect it to be operationalise by 2018,” added Khandhar.
Span plans to use multiple sources to fund the expansion. “The investment will by mostly funded through internal accruals, promoter funds and debt. We are also open to strategic investors like venture capital and private equity,” said Naman Khandhar, director of the company.
The company has already tied up with large retail malls such as Lifestyle, Central, and Trends & Ethnicity, besides being present in popular e-commerce platforms such as Myntra, Jabong, and Flipkart.
The company’s experience revealed that about 95 per cent of its retail sales of women’s ethnic wear comes from offline stores.
[“Source-thehindubusinessline”]