Men’s apparel and accessories-maker Turtle Ltd plans to become a complete menswear brand with the launch of its own footwear range. The footwear range is likely to be out by December 2013.
According to Amit Ladsaria, director, Turtle would look at third-party manufacturing for its footwear range.
“We will firm up our plans and launch the footwear range in another 9 to 12 months,” Ladsaria told
Launch of the footwear range was delayed by nearly a year after the company’s warehouse at Howrah (on the western side of Kolkata) caught fire earlier this year.
The Kolkata-headquartered company, currently, owns two brands — Turtle (premium menswear) and London Bridge (mass market).
Rebranding
Turtle had rebranded its offerings in October. The company has entered into a tie-up with a UK-based designer and launched new logos (an Olive Ridley turtle for the Turtle brand and a new ‘London Bridge’ icon). Rebranding is expected to cost the company nearly Rs 3 crore.
Accordingly, the company is trying to add casual and winterwear collections to its formal apparel offerings. Casual wear (shirts and T-shirts) is expected to contribute nearly 45 per cent of its turnover with an equal share coming from the formal wear range. The remaining would be from denims.
“There should be good traction for denims,” Ladsaria said.
Other offerings
Over the last three months, Turtle introduced its denim offerings under the “Turtle” brand. Denims are priced Rs 1,495 onwards. The decision was taken after earlier discussions with UK-based entities (to bring a foreign brand) failed to fructify.
“Most foreign brands are planning to enter on their own and talks weren’t moving ahead,” Ladsaria added.
Turtle’s winter wear range, introduced this year, is priced upwards of Rs 1,995 and includes pullovers, jackets and suits.
The company has five manufacturing units, three in Kolkata and two in Bangalore, while it depends on outsourcing for other offerings such as denims and winter wear.
While most of its formal wear offerings are displayed at multi-brand outlets as well as stand-alone ones, denims are exclusively stand-alone shop offerings.
Turtle has 58 stand-alone outlets while London Bridge has four.