Bulchee, owned and operated by the Lifestyle division of  the KMB Group, one of India's premier leather retailers, started its journey as a watchstrap brand around fifteen to twenty years back in the country. The evolution of the brand was in sync with the growing opportunities for modern retail that began around early 2000.  Currently, Bulchee houses premium accessories for both men and women including belts, wallets and handbags along with ties and other small accessories. Today the brand has managed to retain its niche, despite the growing competition and represents a heritage of international quality merchandising in the Indian market.  So, let's hear it from the duo as to what keeps the brand ticking.

How challenging it is to carve out a niche especially in such a competitive market?

India is still not as competitive as rest of the world. It still has a long way to go; we are at the early days in retail and in order to carry out a niche involves doing your job with loyalty and dedication.

So given the above how would you define your USP and value additions?

I would say it's a world class product at a reasonable price.

What is your marketing strategy and how encouraging is the market growth for a brand like yours in India?

Well, I think with the increasing size of the youth segment, the disposable income of the youth today is also building up. The first job of today's generation earns much more than the last job of the previous generation. So, there is a growing need for world class products. Of course, all can't afford international brands and in such a scenario our brand Bulchee sort of falls well in the line.   

What does it take to capture and then retain your consumer? Could you tell us about some of your in-store initiatives such as displays, promos etc?

We don't capture, we rather present ourselves in the best possible way and eventually the right person comes along.

So, over the last couple of years we have worked on making our retail store design more efficient for our new categories and started merchandising them better, which made the customers expect a certain standard from us. Even though we run small stores, based on the presentation of the merchandise at the stores we get the upshots of our sales number. We have started including strong processes for visual merchandising and also in terms of zoning. We have also completely re-imagined our store formats and colours to create an extra inviting impression.   

Are there any new trends that you are seeing in terms of consumer behaviour/buying pattern?

Trends are split mainly between gender categories. I feel men are moving more towards higher price points and quality oriented goods. So though there is a market for economical products, I am seeing an increase in the uptake of higher price spends among men.

As for women, they are becoming extremely brand conscious mostly for the high-end labels, that are either moving really low or really high in terms of price. At one point of time, India was lagging at least six months behind the international fashion trends. But now the scenario has changed and the time lag in terms of adoption of global trends is closing in India.  

So, do you feel any kind of competition from these global trends or the international brands present in the market?

No, not really, they can't provide the value that we do. On a business level you have to look at it specifically on where you think they are competing with us and I feel they don't compete with our men's wear category at all. Relatively, we are in competition with some of the Indian owned international brands like Paris Hilton or any label that comes into that Rs 2000 rupee handbag category, mainly because we haven't yet differentiated our women's segment as well as the men's.

Going further what are your plans in terms of expansion across India?

Bulchee sells through 400 outlets across the country through major shopping destinations such as Shoppers Stop and Lifestyle, among others. We are also growing in terms of retail outlets such as boutiques. We have around 20 boutiques on the ground today and based on the rate at which malls are opening, we are launching our stores. Real estate also plays a crucial role in our expansion plans. How well the real estate market is doing in the context of retail determines our decision to open stores, of course keeping profitability in mind.

How many stores are you planning to launch by the end of this year? Which are the target cities?

We will be unveiling two outlets in Mumbai, one at Thane and the other at Ghatkopar. So, Mumbai is our current target location based on its larger potential for sales following which we might move towards the Delhi NCR region.  

Is there any plan to introduce something exclusive in the upcoming stores? Will there be any change in the retail identity of the stores in the offing?

See, it's just the presentation which has been changed; basically we have recessed customer behaviour. Being a brand for both men and women, it's complicated to present the categories in a equal manner. So all that we have done is - researched how men and women behave and what kind of stores they would desire to walk in and accordingly we have adjusted our store design.

Coming to the retail identity, well, it has gone through a bit of overall change in terms of the kind of colours we would wish to emphasize along with the materials we have incorporated in-store to reflect our movement towards the premium category segment. So, you will find our newer stores looking brighter and contemporary.
 
What kinds of growth are you looking at for with these expansion plans?

As of now, the real estate is not developing as fast as we would like it to and the retail sector is also not doing great. Therefore, I would just say that the growth is a function of the economy and the markets.