Anticipating a post-Covid retail boom, Popees to open 100 stores this year

Popees Baby Care Products, one of the leading children’s clothing brands with manufacturing units at Tiruvali in Malappuram district of Kerala, Bengaluru and Tirupur, plans to expand its retail presence across south India through own and franchisee model outlets and open its first overseas stores in the UK, in London and Manchester. Announcing this here in Kochi, where the brand opened its first exclusive outlet in 2019, Shaju Thomas Managing Director, Popees, said currently, Popees has 32 exclusive outlets in south India in addition to thousands of multi brand outlets stocking its products. “Of these 32 outlets, we opened 25 since the outbreak of covid and despite the lingering pandemic, the performance and prospects of these outlets were really promising which made us look into this retail expansion spree”, he said.

“We want to take the number of exclusive outlets to cross 100 this year and in 5 years’ time, expanding pan India, want to make it 500. At present, the brand’s export figures contribute only around 5 to 8% of its last year’s annual sales of Rs.134 crores. We would like to increase this share as well in the coming years while we target the sales to cross Rs.200 crores this year. In 5 years, we aim to cross the Rs.1000 crore-mark,” Mr. Shaju Thomas added. He also said the company is offering attractive returns on investment for those who want to take part in this development process. “We also strive for a paradigm shift in the business model by strengthening our presence in the e-commerce space. The new omnichannel will be launched soon to give customers a different shopping experience,” he said. Popees has already got a growing presence in the world’s leading e-commerce platforms like Amazon, Flipkart and Ajio.

He said Popees is one of the very few clothing manufacturers in south India which sells its products in its own brand while most of the leading players in the segment here are working for foreign labels. “Since our beginning in 2005, we were confident of our quality, designs and marketing acumen which made us explore both the domestic and export markets with our own brand. The result was very encouraging and despite the recent pandemic attacks, we have been excelling our targets which prompted us to expand both on exports and domestic fronts,” he added. The company also wants to increase its product range by adding toys, diapers and accessories in the coming years and looks at private placements to fund the expansion plans initially while targets to go public by the end of FY 2024-25.

Currently, with three plants employing more than 2000 people with a capacity to produce 5 lakh garments every month, the company’s major focus is on children’s clothing but it also produces denim garments and woven fabrics garments and maternity wear for women. The brand has also launched south India’s first baby soap recently in addition to baby oil, wipes, bath gel and baby shampoo. “In India, we see a huge potential for such a wide array of products for children in the coming years while on the export front, we would be concentrating on clothing products. We already export to nearly 30 countries and in phases, want to set up exclusive stores globally,” he said.