The Business Bytes
TBB BUREAU
MUMBAI, FEBRUARY 4, 2022
India’s leading fashion company Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Ltd (ABFRL) will set up a platform to foray in the direct-to-consumer (D2C) business.
The board of directors of the company in their meeting on Friday approved the setting up of the new subsidiary. Its D2C platform is focused towards building a portfolio of distinct, new-age, digital brands across categories in fashion, beauty and other allied lifestyle segments.
The venture will initially be funded through ABFRL’s internal accruals and at an appropriate time, the firm will look to bring in external capital to accelerate growth, the company said in a release.
“Other than providing growth capital, ABFRL’s proposition is built around its strong operational expertise where it will utilise its rich experience and capabilities to scale up this portfolio,” ABFRL said.
The newly incorporated entity will organically incubate and also acquire promising and scalable D2C brands. The company’s entry into the D2C space comes at a time when the D2C market is expected to touch $100 billion by 2025.
The company will now accelerate the process of building the D2C framework and identify key talent for its D2C subsidiary.
ABFRL will also look to tap into the broader tech ecosystem and collaborate effectively with its ecommerce partners, tech service providers, digital marketing agencies to scale this business rapidly, the company said.
Commenting on the move, ABFRL Managing Director Ashish Dikshit said, “We are excited about the D2C opportunity in India. At ABFRL, we want to build the next set of iconic brands in the digital space as we evolve with our changing consumers. Leveraging our core capabilities around design, product creation, sourcing and brand building that have enabled us to create some of India’s most loved fashion brands in the offline space, we now wish to craft a blockbuster portfolio in the digital space as well.”
“We are confident that this foray will successfully meet the aspirations of digitally native customers and also create long-term value for investors and other stakeholders,” he added.
ABFRL is part of a leading Indian conglomerate, The Aditya Birla Group. With revenue of Rs. 5,249 crore spanning retail space of 8.4 million sq. ft. (as of March 31, 2021), it is India’s first billion-dollar pure-play fashion powerhouse with an elegant bouquet of leading fashion brands and retail formats.
The Company has a network of 3,212 stores across approximately 31,000 multi-brand outlets with 6,800-plus point of sales in department stores across India (as of31st March 2021).
It has a repertoire of leading brands such as Louis Philippe, Van Heusen, Allen Solly and Peter England established for over 25 years.
