Kishore Biyani-backed Future Style Lab to add 70 stores over 3 years

NEW DELHI: Kishore Biyani-backed Future Style Lab that operates the Cover Story and Ancestry brands is planning to expand its presence by adding about 70 stores in the next three years, investing Rs 50-60 crore.

While the fashion brands are currently positioned as metro and top city products, next on the company’s list for expansion are Jaipur, Chandigarh and Ahmedabad.

Future Style Lab makes a pre-store investment of Rs 60 lakh to Rs 1 crore on each of its Cover Story stores, inspired by London high-street fashion.

The newer ethnic Indian fashion brand, Ancestry, launched a year ago has seven stores now and will see another 40 stores added in the next three years. The remaining 30 stores will be under the Cover Story brand.

Cover Story's design office is based in London, while nearly 60-70% of its production and sourcing are done in India, with the rest coming from other parts of Asia.

Biyani is a majority shareholder in Future Style Lab, which was set up in 2016 and is a subsidiary of the Future Group.

"We are a small, agile and less-bureaucratic company. We are expecting to meet our revenue target of Rs 140 crore this year, between our two brands," chief executive Manjula Tiwari said.

In fiscal 2018-19, it made nearly Rs 100 crore of turnover, 80% of which comes from Cover Story, which is positioned in the category of Zara and H&M.

The top Cover Story stores make about 40% Ebitda, or operating profit. However, overall, it is not Ebitda positive yet.

However, the main challenge in retail India is finding the right real estate. “We are choosy and want our stores to become profitable as soon as possible and don’t just go for any mall space,” she said.

According to a McKinsey's report, FashionScape, India's apparel sector will be more than $60 billion in 2022, making it the sixth largest market for fashion in the world. To compare, the UK will be $65 billion and Germany, $63.1 billion.