More than 70 per cent of our stores are franchisee run

The brand that firmly believes in the franchise model is all set for an aggressive expansion this financial year. Here’s more on W as Anant Daga, Chief Executive Officer, TCNS Clothing Company Pvt. Ltd chats with Parina Sood.

Tell us a little about W and its USP.

W, a women’s wear brand mirrors the new age Indian woman. The brand grew out of the need to offer contemporary Indian woman, innovative and ready to wear clothes that combine fashion and functionality. With a unique design sensibility, the Indian ‘Salwar-Kameez’ has been transformed into chic and urban yet comfortable form. This was the first such attempt at reinventing Indian fashion. W offers fashion leadership through a signature ‘Fusion’ design language which reflects an Indian essence combined with modernity.

When did W start franchising? How has the experience been?

Though we had started experimenting with the franchising model as early as 2005, we got into it in a big way from 2010 onwards. As of now, more than 70% of our stores are run on this model. The experience has been very encouraging and today more than 50% of our franchisees operate multiple stores.

What training and support can the franchisees expect from you?

We do a lot of handholding as far as our franchisees are concerned. It’s a business of details where you need to get involved. All store layouts are developed by the brand and extensive project execution support is extended.  VM guidelines along with all customized POS material are deployed for all the stores.  Data analytics support is extended to facilitate better buying and replenishments. We have one of the strongest recruitment, training and incentivisation programmes for the front end sales staff. We have stringent SOPs set for the stores and follow up with robust mystery shopping exercise to ensure high standards of operations. All in all, we have a very close working relationship with the franchisees and that’s what makes our business a complete win-win for all.

Talk us through one new trend that you feel will change the retail landscape.

Though it’s been there for quite some time, but I feel the true potential of online sales is yet to be unleashed in the fashion business. More and more people are getting hooked to online shopping and with improvement in connectivity, better gadgets and security of transactions, this segment is all set for exponential growth. Online business is definitely going to transform the retail landscape and consumer behavior in the coming days.

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