M&B to diversify into apparel

“We will now get into the casual wear segment. We will also retail apparel and accessories including belts, caps, socks and wallets,” said Inder Dev Singh Musafir, director, M&B.

MAIL TODAY
By Monica Behura in New Delhi

M&B Footwear, owners of the iD brand of shoes and a multi-branded retail firm, plans to add accessories and apparel to its existing product line.
“We will now get into the casual wear segment. We will also retail apparel and accessories including belts, caps, socks and wallets,” said Inder Dev Singh Musafir, director, M&B.
The company is also in talks with international players to franchise three global shoe brands. It is already in licensing and distribution pacts with seven international footwear brands, including Lee Cooper, Provogue, Rider (Brazil) and Geox (Italy).
The company plans to start manufacturing the Geox brand of shoes at its Baddi plant in the next six months.
While M&B Footwear has earmarked Rs 20 crore for brand promotion in 2008-09, it intends to invest around Rs 90 crore for setting up 250 stores across India by 2010.
The company has also rolled out aggressive plans to take its product to 15 countries including Thailand, Hong Kong, Philippines, Russia and some countries in mainland Europe.
And in order to raise funds for these mega-plans, M&B Footwear is planning to enter the market with an initial public offering (IPO) early next financial year. Earlier, it had diluted 14 per cent of its equity base through a private placement.
“We need to raise funds through an IPO to take our brand iD to the international market,” said Musafir.
“We have already diluted 14 per cent (of our equity through private placement). We plan to dilute another 11 per cent.”
Around 80 per cent of the Rs 10,000-crore shoe industry in India falls in the unorganised segment.
The rest 20 per cent, which forms the organised segment includes players such as Bata, Liberty, Lakhani Footwear and M&B, among others, and accounts for a turnover of Rs 2,000 crore.
Musafir said that shoe manufacturers have requested the government to rationalise the taxation structure, making it at par with the textile and apparel industry.
While shoe manufacturers currently pay 10 per cent excise duty and 12.5 per cent VAT, textile industry pays only four per cent VAT. It is exempt from the excise duty regime.
monica.behura@mailtoday.in