ONTD

Brand Concepts, which has the exclusive rights to socialite and hotel heiress Paris Hilton’s luxe handbags and accessories in the country, on Sunday said it plans to open eight exclusive Paris Hilton stores this year and expect revenues of Rs. 80 crore in the first four years.

“The Fall-Winter season is a good time for the entire country. We are expecting to sell around 15,000 units this fiscal. In the next four years, it should be a Rs. 75-80 crore business,” Brand Concepts chief executive officer (CEO) Abhinav Kumar told the news agency here last evening.

Socialite, actor and musician Paris Hilton is on a three-day visit to the city, which began on Saturday.

The Paris Hilton bags are priced in the range of Rs. 2,500-12,000 and are currently available in 35 countries across the globe. However, the Paris brand has not yet established a footprint in India.

“Bags and clutches are the first accessories that I notice in a lady,” Hilton told reporters during a media interaction here last evening.



Brand Concept will initially sell these products through Shoppers Stop, Kumar said, adding that later on, they will also be available in other large format stores.

The firm also plans to launch exclusive Paris Hilton stores and will open eight outlets by the end of this fiscal. “By December, there will be four to five standalone stores and seven to eight by March,” Kumar said, adding that the number of such stores will touch 40-50 in the next three years.

The women’s fashion accessories market in the country is estimated at Rs. 6,000-6,500 crore and Paris Hilton has 17 product lines, including handbags, eye-wear, watches, fragrances, apparel, footwear, music albums, pet products, stationery and bedding.

On the investment, Kumar said, “We have plans to invest $3-4 million in the next two years on brand building and setting up the stores.” He added that it will not be for TV or print campaigns.

“When the business grows, we will have proper advertising like catalogues, photo shoots, print ads, etc. But for the upper premium segment, you will never see us paint the town red. We are not a mass-market brand,” managing director Prateek Maheshwari said.

Maheshwari said this was more so because Hilton is more inclined toward music and an association with MTV or VH1 would make more sense than a television campaign.

Kumar also said the Paris Hilton handbags will compete against Guess in terms of price points, but the designs would be completely different.

On the target market, Kumar said the company will target tier-1 and tier-2 cities, apart from the metros. “We are targeting the tier-1, tier-2 cities in the first phase. The tier-2 cities have huge potential. People there too have budgets to spend on luxury products, but do not have enough windows to do so.

“The lack of availability of products is a problem. It is equally an important area for us to launch our stores in such centers,” he said.

When asked if the product portfolio would expand to apparel, Maheshwari said, “Our focus today is on accessories. We share a great relationship with the Paris Hilton brand. Apparel could also be part of the product portfolio, but it could be two to three years down the line.”

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