Chennai-based saree retailer Nalli Silks plans to invest Rs 100-150 crore in the next two years on retail expansion across the country, with a focus on tier 2 cities which account for a chunk of its wedding sales.

“Wedding sales account for 50-60 per cent of our overall sales. And a major portion of wedding sales come from people travelling from smaller cities – hence, we plan to take Nalli to them. We kick-started our expansion plan in tier 2 cities by opening a store in Coimbatore in April,” says Mr Kamal Tandon, COO, Nalli Silks.

Three more stores will be opened soon in Puducherry, Kanchipuram and Ahmedabad. Today, the Rs 550-crore Nalli runs 24 stores across major metros such as Chennai, Bangalore, Delhi and Mumbai.

Nalli, a strong brand in the South, also has a following in Delhi. “Interestingly, Delhi is our biggest market after Chennai so we are looking at increasing our store count in the North (NCR and Punjab). We also want to enter East (Kolkata),” says Mr Tandon.

More stores will come up in Bangalore and Mumbai as well.

Apart from the traditional ‘Nalli’ format, the retailer also operates three ‘Nalli Next’ stores in Chennai, Bangalore and Mumbai, catering to the “demands of the modern working women.” “We want to extend it to all metros where we not present, especially North.”

Nalli also has two stores abroad (US and Singapore). There are plans to expand in the Asian market – possibly Sri Lanka.

“Nalli started as a traditional silk saree retailer. Today, Nalli has something for everybody – be it traditional Kanchipuram or designer sarees and light weight crepes. Our in-house production unit also has its line of apparel and kurtis. We are also exploring possibilities of entering new verticals,” says Mr Tandon.

Mr Tandon, a business management graduate from the University of Washington with over 17 yrs of work experience in core retail operations and banking, was roped in by Nalli in 2009.

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