NEW DELHI: Artimas Fashions Private Limited, a subsidiary of Lux Industries, which sells innerwear and sleepwear products under cricketer Virat Kohli’s brand One8, is in the process of raising $5 million in the coming weeks.
The company will use these funds to market their products as well as retail them. It expects to operate 40 franchised stores in the next 18 months to sell One8 products. It has already signed eight franchise stores.
Managing director Nischal Puri said the company has been created in collaboration with Lux Industries with debt of ₹30 crore, with Lux providing the manufacturing, design, marketing and retailing of the brand. “The premium innerwear market for men for the company is about 12% and the company is looking to target a higher 18-20% EBITDA margin in the coming days,” he said.
To be sure, Cornerstone Sport and Entertainment Private Limited is the licence owner of One8, a representation of Kohli’s jersey number 18. Artimas Fashions, which gives a royalty to Cornerstone reported a turnover of ₹26 crore in FY22 and the company hopes to hit ₹45 crore by the end of this fiscal, Puri said. Mint could not independently verify this data.
Currently, the company focuses primarily on the tier-1 cities and its sales are evenly split between retail and e-commerce. The brand is sold across 5000 retail stores in India and through e-commerce marketplaces such as Amazon, Flipkart, and Myntra.
Puri said India’s innerwear market is pegged at about ₹32,000 crore of which, men’s products account for a little over 30%. The company hopes to gain a larger share of the pie of the market with Kohli as its face. “It is a higher margin business, the premium category and we are targeting the age group of over 18 with whom brand Virat resonates very well,” he said.
Download The Mint News App to get Daily Market Updates & Live Business News.
