Ritu Wears, with time has successfully carved a niche amongst multi-branded retail outlets. In an interview, Sanjay Sahni, Managing Director, Ritu Wears shares the success story of his company.
Ramanjit Kaur (RK): Could you please shed some light on the inception of Ritu Wears?
Sanjay Sahni (SS): Established in 1965, Ritu Wears has grown from 6000 sq. ft to 2 lakh sq. ft today. We have company owned outlets in Delhi and recently ventured into the markets of Punjab and Haryana as well.
RK: In what ways, Ritu Wears is different from other lifestyle brands? What is the USP?
SS: It is a multi brand family chain and has quality lifestyle products like footwear, home products, personal care and toys apart from apparels. Customers can find everything under one-roof. The products are made available as per the catchments and the area requirements.
RK: What inspired the company to adopt the franchise route for expansion?
SS: Till a few years back we only had our company owned stores in the major metro cities. But now we are thinking to expand in Tier II and III cities through the franchise route. Many entrepreneurs had expressed their interest in doing business with our company, so we thought of taking the franchise route to penetrate these markets.
RK: What are the eligibility criteria for selecting the franchisees for your company?
SS: We do not hand-over the entire store handling to our franchisees. Typically, our franchise model is more like a managerial task where we provide a lot of support to the new franchisees. In the beginning, the franchisees take care of supervising the staff and managing the store only, rest is handled by our company itself. However, we select our franchisees on the basis of:
- Area requirement (around 6,000 -8, 000 sq. ft)
- Location with good vicinity
- Investment capability and
- Prior experience in retail industry
RK: What kind of training and support a franchisee will get when partnering with Ritu Wears?
SS: We assist our franchisees in recruiting the right staff for the franchised stores. We provide operational training to the franchisees and their staff. Besides, our company has a back-end team that provides management training to our franchisees and help them in the store design; layout; marketing and other requisites, which are essential during the early phase of the franchise establishment.
RK: How many outlets does Ritu Wears presently have?
SS: Ritu Wears presently supports 10 operational stores in Delhi-NCR and Punjab, out of which, five are in Delhi-NCR and two in Punjab. We are rapidly expanding across north India and are aiming for expansion in tier II and tier III cities via franchising.
RK: Which brands are available at Ritu Wears? What are the product offerings?
SS: In men’s wear, we have Color Plus, Levi’s, Louis Philippe, Van Heusen, Arrow, Parx, Blackberry, Lee, Spkyar, Mufti. For women, W, Biba, Park Avenue are a few brands to name. For kid’s wear, we have Giny n Jony, Lil kangaroos, Puma, Zapp! etc.
All our outlets are stocked with international and national brands in apparel, footwear, lifestyle accessories, toys, luggage and home products.
RK: What are the company’s future plans in terms of expansion through franchise route?
SS: We aim to build up our number of stores and move to central India. We are opening a store in Indore this month, followed by stores in Bhopal, Chattisgarh, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi. We aim to expand the franchise way in the tier II and III cities.
