The brand definitely has an aspirational quotient for its consumers as they provide fashionable clothing at affordable prices under a modern retail environment.

Investments in innovation and technology

The brand has been cautiously investing in building a robust infrastructure to help their business to business and business to consumer’s initiatives. Cambridge has been working strongly to showcase a seamless experience to its customers at their retail outlets and buying experience for their trade partners. The brand works closely with its technology set-up to monitor the right assortment of merchandise in its stores. This in turn makes the buying experience more pleasurable with no stock outs in the best seller’s categories for its end customers. This holistic approach is what has made our business successful and its brand value stronger in the market today.

Product basket and new addition

The brand profiles in the men’s wear segment and it offers shirts, trousers and t -shirts. Their best sellers are formal- shirts starting from Rs 899/-  and trousers from Rs 999/-. The brand also has standard accessories like ties, belts, wallets and socks in their stand-alone outlets.

We are travelling more than ever and there is a need for a garment to minimize washing and ironing. Cambridge new travel collection does all that and more. It has some lightweight travel shirts and jackets, tuxedo jackets and flexi-belt formal trousers.

Prashant Bhatia, Managing Partner, Cambridge, talks about the brand’s expansion movement as he says, “The brand’s focus for this year will be to sharpen its portfolio in its jackets and blazers category with more affordable price points. The brand had launched their ethnic wear segment during the pre-covid times and the expansion was kept on hold during pandemic. Now since the market situation is normalizing, the brand will be focusing on growing their ethnic wear in the affordable price bracket.”

Retail graph and expansion

Currently, the brand has its 60 exclusive brand outlets (EBO) in Maharashtra, 5 in West Bengal, 5 in Gujarat and 2 in Bihar and gets its 95 percent share from this format. The brand is also present in some 30 multi brand outlets (MBO). They also have presence in 5 shop-in shop stores (SIS). The MBOs give another 4 percent and SIS gives 1 percent business respectively.    

Prashant Bhatia explains the importance of regional market for the growth of Cambridge as he thinks, “Yes, I consider regional markets as the most important driver in ensuring a brand’s success in any region. We need to plan our product mix in accordance to the need of a particular market. The regional markets are critical to our growth. We make products that sell in a particular region, which means we sell more products to a lot more people.”

He further illustrates the brand expansion plans as he quotes, “We wish to grow the number of (EBOs) in both smaller towns and cities and reach our target of achieving 100 outlets by March 2024.”

Brand outlook

Cambridge has a small offering to the sustainability conscious customers. It is venturing into organically grown cotton based fabrics in some categories. It’s also using some fiber like rayon and bamboo that are naturally sourced and have been proved to be environmental friendly.

The brand is also building its e-commerce platform to facilitate the convenience for its consumers.

Talking about the turnovers, Prashant Bhatia views, “We stand at 50 crores and expect a year-over-year (YOY) growth of 20 percent in the next 2-3 years.”

Cambridge is clear that ‘adoption is not a one-time option; you either adapt to the changing dynamics on a constant basis or perish’. With this philosophy the brand looks at an amazing future ahead.