Hidesign to expand with 15 stores across India this fiscal

“Hidesign plans to open 15 stores, nine of which will be in airports, and about 5-6 will be across malls,” its president Dilip Kapur said. The company will invest Rs 20 crore to open new stores, he said. 

Hidesign will open stores at the airports of Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Kochi, and some more stores will be opened at tier-I cities. The brand has 80 stores across the country and abroad. It entered the US in 2014 to make international inroads. For a premium brand like Hidesign, the segment is small but growth is higher than the mass market, Kapur said. 

The brand has greatly benefited from the e-commerce wave and has made strong inroads into the US market, he said. It markets and distributes competitively priced bags and small leather goods in the US through online as well as high-end independent retailers. 

“E-commerce has aided us greatly in our expansion in the US. Selling directly through e-commerce is very useful and building a brand is much easier,” he said. He said the company is considering selling directly in the US instead of going through distributors. The company also plans to overhaul Hidesign’s India- oriented lifestyle brand ‘Holii’ this year in terms of product mix, and price points. Louis Vuitton owns a minority stake in the company.