M&B Footwear, a leading name in the Indian footwear segment, has declared its intention to diversify in the business of apparel and accessories. “We will now get into the casual wear segment. We will also retail apparel and accessories including belts, caps, socks and wallets,” said Inder Dev Singh Musafir, Director, M&B. Also, revealed Vikas Bagga, Vice President, Marketing & Sales, M&B Footwear that the fall/winter accessories collection will be launched in this season and the apparel in the next year. These accessories will be manufactured either at the company’s facilities or outsourced to the third party. “The accessories will include sunglasses, watches etc and the targeted consumers will be the youth since iD is a young brand,” added Bagga. Presently M&B has 50 outlets across India and has allocated around Rs 90 crore to set up 250 outlets within two years. The company has also rolled out aggressive plans to venture in 15 countries including Thailand, Hong Kong, Philippines, Russia and some countries in mainland Europe apart from SAARC countries and Middle East. M&B is now planning for IPO in the next financial year to raise the necessary funds for its mega plans. The company is also in talks with international players to franchise three global shoe brands and is already in licensing and distribution agreements with seven international footwear brands, including Lee Cooper, Provogue, Rider (Brazil) and Geox (Italy). The company prefers franchise route for expansion. To set up M&B Megastore, the area requirement is 1000 sq ft with an investment of around Rs.50 lakh. The preferable location for this retail format is malls and prominent marketplaces. For store-in-store format, area requirement is 225 sq ft at a corner position and running wall of length 30 ft.
