MiniKlub Making Fashion Wear Available For Newborns To 8-Years-Old Kids
Miniklub is an Indian kidswear brand that started its retail journey in the year 2013 with a vision of providing international quality apparel in India. In Just a few years, Miniklub has established 85 per cent coverage across India with over 450 multi-brand outlets, leading large and regional large format stores. We launched Miniklub with an apparel range for newborns to 2 years and as we started our exclusive outlets across India, we extended our offerings from newborns to 6 years and added non-apparel to our range to be a complete baby solution brand.
Miniklub also launched its sub-brand Mini Cuddles in the UK in partnership with John Lewis, the largest co-operative in UK. Mini Cuddles offers a comfy fashion range for newborns to 2 years old.
Tell us about your inception story and talk about your vision.
With experience and knowledge under our belts, it was taking the leap from “thinking it “to actually doing it. In 2013 we took the leap.
Why not create a brand for babies – inspired by babies and so we did! Taking the expertise of running an internationally acclaimed manufacturing facility – only for baby garments - clubbing this with a product development eye for international design and finishing it off with a high-quality line of clothing from 0-8 years with all international safety standards.
The dream now reality is growing day by day from a small retail brand in India to an international brand in the UK and beyond.
What is the USP of the brand and who is its target audience?
Babywear or kids wear as a segment requires a lot of research before we develop products we deliver the end product to our customers. Understanding of products, the material used, design and getting it done from the right manufacturer becomes key. We as a brand have a good understanding of manufacturing as our core business is manufacturing for International babywear brands. Just imagine the background of a strong manufacturing unit with all the international standards coming together with the Indian product and design team, this becomes our USP and that’s why mothers in India trust us when they pick up a product at our stores or online for their babies/ minis.
How has Covid played a significant role in the brand's business development?
Pandemic changed a lot of things for us and for the entire world. The good thing about our business is that it's pandemic proof, the birth rate never went down throughout the pandemic. Yes, we changed our strategy quickly to adapt to the new normal. Offline contribution took a dent but online sales surged, miniklub.in sale scaled up to 10x within span of two months, market place business grew tremendously year on year. We opened 20 -25 exclusive stores during the pandemic, the only change was we moved away from malls to high streets. Overall it was an experience to live and we kept changing plans as we learnt to deal with pandemic.
What are the future expansion, growth, and funding plans in India?
We are very optimistic as a team and with a strong product line, we are already getting set to grow rapidly across India through multi-brand outlets and departmental stores, exclusive branded stores in key markets. We are looking at opening 100 stores by 2024. When it comes to online we are betting heavily on our platform miniklub.in and continue growing on other leading ecommerce marketplaces.
We are a self-funded company from inception. In the coming 2 – 3 years we are looking to target IPO to infuse funds to grow the business further.
What are the market size and opportunities in India?
Kids' wear is really hot today, compare to those days when we started our journey with Miniklub. Rising disposable income and changing lifestyles, especially in urban areas, are increasing the demand for Kids Wear. The increasing number of nuclear families and rising number of dual-income households are driving growth today and this would grow in the coming days. Nowadays, parents are willing to spend extra on kid’s apparel, they want their kids to wear the latest trends, adding to this offline retail expansion and ecommerce is further boosting the growth. The future is filled with opportunity, brands which will evolve their offering as per consumer needs and stay connected with consumers will prevail.
How much revenue is the brand expecting by the end of this year?
We have budgeted 107 cr. for this financial year 2021 -2022, we are optimistic to achieve the plan number. Looking at the growth in our current financial year and being positive to come out of pandemic in 2022 we are planning to achieve 150 Cr for the new financial year 2022- 2023.
What is the road ahead for the brand? What new products are planned for launch this year?
We are a curious bunch of people working together to offer innovative products to our consumers, we keep challenging to create something new and innovative for our customers. We as a fashion brand want to move one step above and become a complete solution Brand for newborns to 8 years old. This gives us an opportunity to introduce a lot of new products into our offerings.
Along with the products we are we are moving towards sustainability for a better future and making ourselves an environment-friendly brand, our consumers will see products around the sustainable range in coming years.
