This soon to be listed SME aims to be the premium wear brand for Bharat

A combination of growing aspirations and the deep geographic penetration of large e-commerce players has brought most brands within the reach of most Indians, irrespective of location.  

But price is still a big factor for Indians and there are brands—well-known in their own way—that have created their own niche in the vast tier-2, -3 locations.  

Jaimin Gupta was all of 20 years old when he got into the mundane world of textile trading, but soon realised that there was a huge opportunity to create his own brand of premium quality garments and market it across the country.  

Thus was born Barcelona in 2015, which, in less than a decade of its existence, has expanded with over 125 brand outlets spread across 70 towns and, combined with its online presence, boasts of nearly three million customers.   

Further, over 7,500 stores are registered users of Barcelona Club’s business-to-business (B2B) app and the business opens three to four new franchise locations every month.  

“Initially, the business was of trading of textiles. Analysing the gap for premium quality garments for the vast middle-class economy of the country, Barcelona was launched with an aim to offer premium but affordable products to the middle class,” says Gupta.  

The company operates on four business models—exclusive brand outlet, franchise models, wholesale garment supply with B2B mobile app and online marketplace, and dedicated e-commerce website for direct customers. Incidentally, a majority of Barcelona’s outlets are located in tier-2 and -3 towns.   

It is also planning to launch family stores under its brand name that would include products for men, women and children. Incidentally, denim sales account for approximately 52 per cent of its total income.  

Interestingly, the company also has a joint venture with former Indian cricketer Virender Sehwag’s Viru for sportswear stuff like t-shirt, shorts, track pants, and track suits among other things.  

More importantly, the Ahmedabad-based entity is now gearing up to go public on the BSE SME platform with an issue of Rs 48 crore even as it eyes over 350 stores by the end of this year.  

“We want to give retail investors an opportunity to be part of India’s fastest growing retail brand. The IPO process itself gives company a mileage in marketing and branding, which is a win-win to raising funds as well adding consumers. It gets company into hyper active mode in all verticals,” says Gupta.  

Entering the public markets will entail a detailed scrutiny by analysts with finances and fundamentals being the key focus areas.  

The company clocked revenues of Rs 174 crore in FY23 with a net profit of nearly Rs 2.9 crore—a huge jump compared to previous year’s net of Rs 66.38 lakh.  

In terms of other important ratios, the return on capital employed (RoCE) was pegged at 14.72 per cent while the return on equity ratio was 27.51 per cent as on March 31, 2023, with the debt-equity ratio at 0.87.  

Further, the monthly revenue is currently pegged around Rs 3 crore with a 30 per cent monthly average sales growth and 40 per cent monthly average gross margin. Retail sales, meanwhile, has increased 2.5 times in 2023 when compared to the previous year.  

“As the company is raising funds, and promoters are aggressively expanding business, financials to be healthier in future. We are growing at 50 per cent CAGR since last three years, and making it to 100 per cent CAGR year-on-year would be way forward. As our store targets are achieved, revenue targets will eventually be achieved as well. We are creating the network for the company to reach a sustainable annual revenue rate,” says Gupta.  

The company has signed Sonu Sood as their new brand ambassador to spearhead all the new range of fashion fits.  

“One brand serving more than one crore customers through more than one lakh shops. The company will be adding about one lakh multi-model brand outlets and 500 exclusive brand outlets to its network, which will eventually lead to ultimate goal of revenue targets and brand building. The vision is to create largest network of apparel shops on our B2B app,” says Gupta.