Madura Fashions and Lifestyle is stitching plans to reposition its premium menswear brand Allen Solly as a family product.

The company will enter the kidswear segment early next year with a formal national roll-out.

The move is aimed at capturing a share of the kidswear segment in India which is expected to grow Rs80,000 crore (around US$20 billion) by 2015, according to an Assocham report.

“We have done a soft launch in some geographies and have got a very good response. We will look at a national launch early next year,” said Ashish Dixit, COO, Madura Fashions.

“It does make sense for large-scale players to enter the kids segment, either by creating a new brand or even extending existing ones, given the long-term proposition in the market. In the next 25-30 years, a large section of the population will be below 10 years,” said retail consultant Devangshu Dutta of research firm Third Eyesight.

Allen Solly was launched in 1993, bringing a ‘Friday Dressing’ concept to menswear in India. It branched out to women’s wear in 2001.

GB