Building a one-stop shop for kidswear, how MiArcus opened 35 stores in 4 years
MiArcus is a kidswear and kids furnishing retail brand that has established 35 stores across north India since 2019. After four years, the brand is eyeing to close FY24 with a Rs 80 crore turnover.
Boasting a legacy of five decades, Gian Singh’s family in Ludhiana, Punjab has been operating Oster Group as a hosiery business since 1975. While the business earlier primarily catered to the Russian markets, the second generation helped the family foray into other verticals, specialising in home furnishings in the 2000s.
This pivotal move marked a turning point for the company. From making home furnishing products like blankets, soft toys, play mats, cushions, etc for retailers, the group became an OEM (original equipment manufacturer) for IKEA, Mothercare and other leading kids' lifestyle retail companies.
In 2009, when Singh, representing the third generation, joined the company, the primary objective was to grow the OEM vertical. However, the business underwent a restructuring the next year into three distinct verticals. Singh chose to maintain focus on home furnishings within the B2B sector under the parent company Jawandsons Pvt Ltd.
By 2019, with the proliferation of ecommerce and the emergence of direct-to-consumer (D2C) avenues, Singh decided to broaden the B2B business into the B2C realm with . Within four years, the kidswear brand has established itself as a strong competitor alongside brands like Mini Klub, Chicco, Baby Hug, etc.
Talking to SMBStory, Singh says that MiArcus has a monthly run rate of Rs 6 crore and is expecting to close FY24 with Rs 80 crore. The company has a 40% repeat rate of customers.
Building a multi-crore business
While there is an abundance of kidswear brands in India, Singh says it was a challenge for him to find everything for his kids under one roof.
“Malls are fine but still there also it is a challenge to run from store to store. While we were already operating in the kids category as B2B, we thought why not enter the consumer market,” Singh recalls.
With a focus on quality, MiArcus currently has eight categories of products, including clothing, baby furniture, footwear, diaper bags, accessories, toys, feeding products, etc. It also recently entered into maternity wear.
For kids clothing, the products start at Rs 269 and go up to Rs 3,499.
“MiArcus focuses on nursery products, so very literally, we have everything that babies need, from bibs to cribs. Our focus market is north India and in that plan, we have already moved up from one store three years back in Ludhiana to nearly 35 co-owned and co-operated MiArcus outlets in Delhi-NCR, Shimla, Chandigarh, Udaipur, Lucknow, Jammu, Srinagar, and many others across India,” the CEO of MiArcus explains.
MiArcus also has an online retail presence through its website as well as other marketplaces like , , etc.
Talking about exports, Singh says that while MiArcus parent Jawandsons Pvt Ltd has been doing exports of home furnishing products since 2001, the kidswear brand wants to further explore D2C for now.
“The Indian market is too huge to expand right now. However, we have got opportunities from the UAE and Russia for exports but had to deny those,” he adds.
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Challenges and the way forward
Singh says that the kidswear market has a lot of potential to sustain and grow. However, when it comes to garments, there’s huge competition from unorganised players even as the competition for other segments is quite low.
According to an IMARC report, the Indian kids’ apparel market size reached $21.6 billion in 2023. Looking forward, it is expected that the market will reach $26.5 billion in size by 2032.
“Garments contribute to 50% of our sales so the competition is huge for us,” highlights Singh, naming Hamleys as the biggest player in the kidswear market.
MiArcus sources and manufactures all its products in India. The manufacturing is done by the parent company. Only 10% of SKUs in their entire range are imported.
The company wants to become a one-stop solution for all the needs of babies aged 0 to 6.
“In the next three years, we wish to open 50 more stores and expand business on marketplaces and take the business to a monthly run rate of Rs 10 crore and an annual turnover of Rs 120 crore,” Singh adds.
Edited by Kanishk Singh