Indian wear brand Libas has been on an aggressive expansion spree, growing from its first store in 2021 to over 50 stores across 22 cities today. In this conversation with Retail4Growth, Arun AB, Vice President – Exclusive Brand Outlets, discusses how Libas is repositioning itself as a broader "Indian wear & lifestyle" brand rather than a purely ethnic wear player, as it expands into daily wear, workwear, and even non-apparel categories like perfumes, gifting & more. He also dives into the brand's retail strategy, from choosing between malls and strip malls to balancing store aesthetics with capital efficiency, and retail expansion plans to scale up to 250-300 stores across 70 cities within the next three years. 

How do you see Libas as a brand transitioning today? 

We have consciously positioned Libas as an Indian wear brand rather than an ethnic wear brand. Our portfolio goes beyond occasion wear to include daily wear, workwear, casual wear, resort wear and party wear. We are not moving into Western wear, but we are expanding the Indianwear wardrobe with categories like dresses, co-ord sets, kurtis, saris and lehengas. 

We are also expanding beyond apparel in a phased manner. We recently introduced perfumes, which have received a good response, and we are exploring categories like notebooks, gifting and accessories.  

Libas has expanded its offline presence rapidly in the last few years. What has that journey been like? 

We opened our first store in 2021. Last year, we added around 30 stores, and this year we plan to open another 25-30. Today, we have around 53 stores across 22 cities, covering around one lakh sq. ft. of retail space. For the next three years, our aim is to expand to around 70 cities with 250-300 stores and a retail footprint of about four lakh sq. ft.  

The first nitial 50 stores were all about experimenting, learning what the right store size is, what the right market is, which zones in the mall we need to be present in, and what type of facades we need.

What store formats have worked best for Libas? 

Malls continue to work well because customers already know where to shop for women's fashion, and our product range and pricing help us stand out. We've also seen strong performance from strip malls, which combine the visibility of a high street with the convenience of a mall. They also allow us to operate larger stores at a lower cost. 

We are now present across around 30 mallsand they've worked very well for us. At the same time, neighbourhood malls have also given us a very good response. In Bengaluru, for example, locations like Bharatiya City and M5 in Electronic City behave very differently from larger destination malls like Phoenix Marketcity or Mall of Asia. Customers visit these neighbourhood malls because of the convenience, and we'verealised they work really well for our kind of business. 

Are you focusing on any specific regions for your retail expansion? 

NCR is already a strong market for us. In the South, Bengaluru has given us a great response since we started expanding there last year, so that's where we're doubling down. We expect to have around 10 stores in the city by the end of this year, with more planned over the next 12-18 months. Another big focus for us is Uttar Pradesh. We already have stores in cities like Agra, Bareilly and Lucknow, and we're now looking at markets such as Varanasi and Kanpur.  

One advantage we have is that we know exactly where our customers are because of our strong online business. We also have around 800 touchpoints through large-format stores like Shopper's Stop, Lifestyle and other retail partners. That gives us a clear understanding of where the demand is.

Last year, you added 30 stores across different geographies. In what way do you optimise store budgets? 

All our stores are COCO (company-owned, company-operated) stores. We own them and run them ourselves, so every rupee saved per square foot makes a big difference to our five-year returns.  

At the same time, the store has to look premium. We have to invest in the right places and not overspend. It's an ongoing tug of war between optimisation and efficiency. I am not going to put a cheap light in my store because my garments have to look good. Similarly, if we have good content and communication to share with customers, why would we not put a screen on the facade? 

The challenge is finding the right balance. If I know a store is going to generateINR 50 lakhs of business, I can invest more. But if I know another store will do only INR 12-15 lakhs, I still have to maintain the same experience because I cannot give a substandard store to customers. That is where we keep optimising - where we can save, while still ensuring the customer does not feel any compromise.