Men’s apparel and accessories brand, The Bear House, is planning to invest Rs 55 crore to expand its presence in international waters, deepen its offline presence in India, and become a Rs 500 crore brand by the next fiscal year-end, Harsh Somaiya, co-founder, The Bear House, told ETRetail.
The brand, which operates 5 stores in cities like Mumbai, Bengaluru, Pune, and Hyderabad, is planning to open 25 stores by this fiscal year’s end in cities like Dehradun, Jaipur, Delhi, Faridabad, Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Mumbai, Bhopal, Gwalior, and Hyderabad.
“Early this year, we raised Rs 60 crore in Series A funding by diluting approximately 19.5 per cent of our equity. It was led by JM Financial India Growth Fund III, and we will be using these funds to aid our expansion plans,” he asserted.
The brand, which is betting big on company-owned, company-operated stores, is planning to open 70 per cent of its stores in malls and the remaining 30 per cent at high streets.
“The average store size in malls spans across 1,500 – 1,800 sq.ft, whereas the stores on high streets span across 2,000 – 2,500 sq.ft, and our stores turn profitable within their first year of operations,” he stated.
“Our stores are divided into A+, A, and B categories, and CAPEX varies for each category. For A+ category stores, it stands at Rs 4,500 per sq. ft, for A category stores, it stands at Rs 3,500 per sq.ft, and Rs 3,200 for B category stores,” he explained.
“We plan to open 40 per cent of our stores in metro cities, 30 per cent in tier I cities, and the remaining 30 per cent stores will be in tier II and tier III cities,” he further added.
At present, the average order value for the brand stands at Rs 4,500 – Rs 5,000 at the stores, Rs 1,700 – Rs 1,800 at marketplaces, and Rs 2,500 at its D2C website.
“Currently, 15-18 per cent of our revenue is contributed by offline channels, and the remaining comes from online channels; however, we plan to maintain a 60:40 ratio between online and offline going ahead,” he said.
Apart from this, the brand has also opened 130 shop-in-shops in MBOs like Reliance Trends, Central, and is going live with Shoppers Stop soon.
“We eye to have a presence in 70 more MBOs by this fiscal year’s end,”
“We’ve also appointed distributors in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and in North India to further expand our presence,” he further added.
In the international markets, the brand is opening its first store in Dubai in October, followed by Abu Dhabi.
“Apart from this, we are signing 6 more stores in the UAE, which will be opened by this fiscal year’s end. We are following a franchise-owned, franchise-operated model here,” he asserted.
The brand is already available at 6 marketplaces in the UAE and available via a few local partners. It is eyeing 10 per cent revenue contribution from the international markets by the end of this fiscal year.
At present, the brand offers products in 18 categories, with shirts and polos being its fastest-moving categories.
“Currently, shirts contribute to 45 per cent of our revenue and polos contribute 15 to 18 per cent, and now t-shirts are also catching up,” he said.
The brand, which has been clocking 12-14 per cent EBITDA margins, closed the last fiscal with Rs 138 crore in revenue and is eyeing to touch Rs 270 crore by this fiscal year-end.
“We are eyeing to become a Rs 500 crore brand by the end of FY 27,” he asserted.
“By December-January, we are also eyeing to raise another round of funds between Rs 150-200 crore, by diluting less than 10 per cent of our equity, to open 30-40 stores in India, enter Europe and the UK markets, strengthen our product mix, along with branding and marketing activities,” he concluded.
