From Raja Ghoshal
New Delhi, July 12 : The
lifestyle retailing business division of ITC Limited, which runs the Wills Lifestyle
chain, has invested about Rs 7 crore to set up a centralised design unit in Gurgaon.
Sanjiv Keshava, chief executive of the
division, said the unit, which will provide a centralised design prototype for all its
stores across the country, will be up and running by October.
When the lifestyle division was launched
two years ago, it had a two-year design consultancy contract with ADIG of San Francisco.
According to sources, the company is now going to rely on its own designers and the
centralised design prototype unit and will not renew ADIG’s contract. However,
Keshava said the renewal of the contract could not be ruled out.
ITC outsources the garments for all its
lifestyle stores. "The design unit is meant to achieve standardisation and
consistency for all our products across the country", said Keshava. "It will
halve the time taken by vendors from design to output, which is critical in the fashion
business."
Today, ITC opened its 11th Wills
Lifestyle store in the country, the second in the city. It will open 21 stores by the end
of this month and 50 by the end of March next year. The strategy is to have 100 stores by
2003, which will require an investment of Rs250 crore.