Bengaluru: Fast fashion brand Libas has launched a digital-first workwear label Gerua, aimed at young professionals, as it looks to tap into an underserved segment of early career consumers.
The repositioned brand will focus on first-time office goers and early professionals in the 20–25/27 age group, with a sharp focus on affordability and accessibility.
“We realised that newer audiences, Gen Z and early millennials, shop very differently compared to regular users. With Gerua, we wanted to specifically target first-time office goers or young professionals who are just starting their careers,” said Sidhant Keshwani, founder, Libas in an interaction with ETRetail.
The brand will operate in the mass-premium segment, with most products priced between ₹1,500 and ₹2,000.
“We would definitely not position it as a premium brand. It sits more in the mass-premium space, essentially a bridge between mass and mass premium,” Keshwani said.
Gerua will be positioned as a digital-only, online-first brand, with no plans for offline expansion for at least the next two to three years. The brand will be available through Libas’ existing website as a sub-label as well as across marketplaces.
The company said the decision to launch Gerua as a separate sub-brand, instead of integrating it within Libas, was driven by the need for a sharper positioning and differentiated communication strategy.
“This audience needs to be spoken to in a very different language, and we wanted to communicate in a way that they like to hear it,” Keshwani said.
The brand has also onboarded Anyaa Singh as its ambassador to appeal to younger consumers.
Gerua is part of Libas’ broader strategy to expand into new categories and build a multi-brand portfolio. The company has already launched perfumes and operates a plus-size label, Extra Love.
“We see a lot of potential in this segment because the target audience at this price point is massive and still largely untapped,” Keshwani said.
The company is targeting a run rate of around ₹50 crore by Diwali for Gerua, translating to approximately ₹3–4 crore in monthly revenue.
“When we initially planned this in December–January, our goal was to exit the financial year at around ₹40–50 crore,” he said, adding that current geopolitical issues and supply chain disruptions may impact the pace of scale-up.
Gerua will leverage Libas’ existing teams and infrastructure, with no immediate leadership hires planned specifically for the brand.
On the manufacturing front, the company follows a hybrid model, handling design and R&D in-house while working with over 100 factories across India for production.
“It’s a mix of both. We handle all the designing, sampling, and R&D in-house. However, we don’t do any manufacturing ourselves,” Keshwani said.
Keshwani said the opportunity in the segment remains significant, with a large portion of demand concentrated in the sub-₹2,000 price band and a majority of the market still unorganised.
“We believe that over the next two years, we could build Gerua into a ₹200–250 crore brand. And even that would be a small share of a much larger market,” he said.
Looking ahead, the company plans to expand into additional lifestyle categories as it works towards becoming a house of brands. Categories under consideration include home and gifting, accessories, artificial jewellery and handbags.
The company is not looking to raise funds immediately and has a runway for the next 12 months. It is also considering a public listing by the end of the year or early next year, subject to market conditions.
