Puducherry-based Hidesign, a premium manufacturer of leather handbags and accessories, has gathered great popularity across the country and overseas since it was founded in 1978. Having changed its store layouts at regular intervals, the brand is now planning to refresh its store environments with a new look which will first be seen at the Bangalore airport soon. With around 80 stores across the country, the brand also recently shared that they plan to open more stores this year at airports and malls. We caught up with Dilip Kapur, President, Hidesign to learn more about the brand’s journey in reviving store identity through the years, new store design, expansion plans and more.

Can you tell us little bit about the new store design, and how different will it be from the existing store?

Hidesign refreshes store layouts every 4-5 years keeping in mind usage and wear of the store and its fixtures. More importantly the store is best manner to share the brand experience with customers and an updated store layout, ensures we upgrade the experience and keep the communication current. Since 1999-2000, Hidesign has updated store formats multiple times. The early stores with raw brick walls and wood floors looked at tourists and NRIs and were situated in tourist hot spots like Goa, Cochin and Pondicherry, and 5 star hotels like Oberoi Towers Mumbai, Leela Bangalore and Taj Chandigarh. The next store layout in 2004 designed by Hilaire O'Loughlin from Germany brought in imposing polished black stone exteriors with warmth of teak wood shelves on either sides of the store and open centre zones. In 2008-09 Hidesign created stores with a clean glass façade, that you could ‘look into’ and see the product range at a glance. Designed by Malaysian architect May Chan, the store design reflected Hidesign’s growing Asian customer base and women customers. The design kept evolving with new store launches and 2010 saw Chan design the Hidesign flagship store in Pondicherry. Spread over 3 levels the store housed an extensive collection of products, artworks by local Pondicherry artists, and information on the brand’s history, architecture and communication. In 2013, Hidesign moved to a clean, linear, Scandinavian aesthetic under the vision of Icelandic architect Gudjon Bjarnason. Warm white walls, wood flooring and lit shelves with glowing ceiling formed the perfect frame for the full grain, natural leather bags. Hidesign stores today have evolved to hold more product categories such as sunglasses, shoes and newer display fixtures make the display more efficient. 

Who is designing the new store and what was the brief? 

Ayaaz Busrai is designing the new stores and all we told him was that we want to showcase the true Pondicherry culture. We want people to know our bags are handmade and there are only a few pieces in each design. The first store will be launched by the end of May at the KIAL, Bangalore soon.

What were your thoughts on expanding across airports?

We consider airports critical to the development of the brand internationally. We exclusively focus towards a well-informed, career oriented and cosmopolitan consumer both in India and internationally. Thus, it is important for us to have a retail presence at the airports, as we offer travel and gifting products as well as lifestyle products for the on-the-go consumer. Hidesign is currently present at all major airports in India namely the Delhi Domestic Airport, Mumbai Domestic Airport, Hyderabad International & Domestic and Cochin International Airport. 

Since you are present prominently in airport retail spaces, what is the major challenge and advantages of being present here? 

• Challenge is the high cost of deposits, clearances and approvals from airport authority for construction thus considerably increasing fit out periods. 
• Advantages are more footfalls than any other available brick and mortar spaces, a platform for more consumers to experience our product offerings thus widening the target audience of the brand.

What is the brand's omni-channel strategy? 

Hidesign has been successful as a multichannel brand retailing across Brick and mortar, Online, E-commerce, Multi-brand Outlets and Corporate Sales. We have begun to work with omni-channel by giving access to stock across stores in one region to gauge sales and operational feasibility.