Craftsvilla plans to open 1,000 outlets with Rs 100 crore investment

By

Maverick Martins

Published
Dec 14, 2018

Ethnic wear e-commerce platform Craftsvilla is all set to capture the Indian ethnic retail market with its 1,000 outlets which it plans to add in the coming year with an investment of Rs 100 crore ($14 million).
 

Craftsvilla entered the offline market with the opening of its first brick and mortar store last November in Mumbai.
 
The ethnic brand is now looking to expand aggressively across the country. Its offline expansion will be a combination company-owned stores and shop-in-shops in large format stores and smaller multi-brand outlets.

“We are aggressively moving in both online and offline channels with a lean capex and operating model. Our customers like our products as we churn out designs very fast and distribute them quickly to our online and offline stores. Using unique models, we plan to disrupt ethnic retail in India,” Manoj Gupta, CEO of Craftsvilla, told BusinessLine.
 
“We currently have only the Craftsvilla brand with Jharonka as a sub-brand targeting the handloom segment. The private labels helped to improve the company’s margins. At 20-30 per cent month-on-month growth, the traction in private brands has been encouraging,” Gupta added.
 
The company is banking on it private labels coupled with offline expansion to drive growth and expects to narrow its losses in the next fiscal. Craftsvilla had posted revenue of Rs 31 crore with a loss of Rs 27 crore for the fiscal 2018.
 
Founded in 2011 by Manoj and Monica Gupta, Craftsvilla is one of the country’s leading ethnic retailers and currently has 62 outlets across India.