Aditya Birla Group eyeing ecommerce in fashion industry

Aditya Birla Group, India’s leading conglomerate that has significant presence in textile, cement, aluminum and fertilizers, have over the years forayed into sunshine industries like telecom, software and BPO is signaling a major change in Aditya Birla Group’s business strategy towards e-commerce. Now, the $40 billion group is eyeing e-commerce in fashion sector.

Kumar Mangalam Birla, an Indian industrialist and the Chairman of the Aditya Birla Group, one of the largest conglomerate corporations in India on Friday said that he was looking at “different opportunities” to grab a bigger pie of the Indian fashion industry that is estimated to grow to $15 billion in five years.

After launching the new online fashion portal abof.com, the AV Birla group chairman told Bloomberg TV India that he was looking at different opportunities for growth and focusing on fashion as the group has experience it that space.

Undeterred by competition, Birla said that Abof will primarily target audience is 18-25 year old. The Abof products were in sync with what the purchaser wants. E-commerce is an exciting space to be in but the group does not have any revenue target in mind from e-commerce.

Birla bought garment retailer Pantaloon from Kishore Biyani’s Future Group this year and has increased its store count from 65 stores three years ago to 100 outlets now. Birla also revamped its retail business by merging Madura Fashion & Lifestyle with Pantaloon to create the country’s largest branded apparel company with a combined turnover of around Rs 5300 crore. Madura sell premium fashion brands like Van Heusen, Louis Philippe and Allen Solley.