This is the fourth acquisition by ABFRL, the fashion powerhouse of the Aditya Birla group of a designer label in the past 2 years. In a bid to strengthen its fashion couture portfolio, the company has acquired a 51% stake in brand “Masaba” which is owned by Ms. Masaba Gupta, ace fashion designer and a self made icon. This partnership aims to create a young, aspirational and digital-led portfolio play, across the affordable luxury segment in the fashion, beauty and accessory categories. Founded in 2009, the bridge-to-luxury brand offers trendsetting styles of Prêt, Indian and Indo-Western outfits that are age-versatile and functional. The brand is the perfect choice for the global consumers who are traditional yet have modern style sensibilities.
According to the company, brand “Masaba” would largely be scaled through the upcoming and popular D2C vertical – Direct to Customer, through the digital space leveraging its connect with younger audiences. The brand aims to achieve Rs. 500 Cr in turnover by 2027. With Masaba, the company will also enter the beauty and personal care market in India which offers tremendous opportunity to scale.
Commenting on the partnership, Mr. Ashish Dikshit, Managing Director, ABFRL said: “As a new generation of young and digitally native consumers explore their needs within fashion and lifestyle, they actively seek brands that are colourful, vivid and digital. Masaba is a young, effervescent brand with a refreshing and innovative take on every lifestyle category.” He added, “This partnership is also an important step in building presence in the fast-growing beauty and personal care segment. This fits in well with our overall strategy to partner India’s top most designers to build a portfolio of distinctive and aspirational home-grown brands across fashion and lifestyle categories.
Ms. Masaba Gupta, Founder, House of Masaba said, ” As a young, homegrown brand I am delighted to partner with ABRFL to further solidify the House of Masaba into a 360-degree, global lifestyle brand of the future. Inspired by the ever-evolving, India-Proud Gen Z consumer, the brand will introduce multiple product extensions bringing Cosmetics, Personal Care, Athleisure & Home Decor to its portfolio. The House of Masaba already has established a strong foothold among the youth with a robust digital-first strategy and the tie-up with ABRFL will strengthen this position, making the brand future ready. With this partnership, I look forward to creating immersive and collaborative experiences for our target audiences who highly engage in virtual mediums today and are driving the industry’s evolution to the Metaverse.”
Aditya Birla Retail operates 3,200+ stores including iconic brands such as Louis Philippe, Van Heusen, Peter England and Allen Solly as well as has distribution and retail arrangements with international brands such as Ralph Lauren, Ted Baker, Simon Carter among others. The company has also acquired designer brands such as Jaypore, Shantanu & Nikhil, Tarun Tahiliani and Sabyasachi. The company’s products are also available across 26,000 multi-brand outlets and over 7,000+ points of sales in Department stores in India and worldwide.
