India’s leading bottom wear brand, Chennai-based Go Colours has reported a drop of 3.4% in its Same Store Sales Growth (SSSG) for FY 25-26. For the fourth quarter, the decline was 2.6%.
Revenues at INR 838 Cr remained flat over the previous year, while Net Profit dropped 37% over the previous FY to INR 59 Cr.
To its credit, the brand revolutionised bottom wear for women with colourful, comfortable and affordable prices.
Founded in 2010 by father-son duo Prakash and Gautam Sarogi, the brand innovated at once in multiple fronts –
- Mono-category approach – only bottom wear
- Uni-gender – focussed on women only
- Colours and more colours
- Limited assortment / sub-categories
- Kiosks as Points of Sale and Branding
- Zero Discounts
- Capital-light approach with 90% outsourcing
By 2014, Sequoia Capital (now Peak XV Ventures) invested USD 10 Mn in the brand, which help the promoters to scale up. In Nov. 2021, Go Fashion (India) Limited launched its INR 1,013 Cr Initial Public Offering (IPO).
The public issue was met with massive investor enthusiasm, getting oversubscribed 93.6 times, reflecting strong confidence in its high-margin, capital-light retail model.
Interestingly, the brand had raised just around USD 30 Mn pre-IPO in Private Equity rounds.
Editor’s Note
For a category that was considered to be invincible, drop in SSSG, a key metric in the larger context of retail is a reflection of changing trends and consumption patterns.
During the mid-2010s, Go Colours focussed mostly on core categories such as leggings and jeggings, the market segment has now evolved much ahead with syles such as palazzos and culottes.
With changing trends and with the advent of Gen Alpha entering the fray along with Gen Z and the Millennials, coupled with a wider availability at vertical-focussed concept stores such as Intune, Zudio, Yousta, etc., sales has not only split but has also spilled over various channels.
Another key observation from the brand’s performance is its reducing contribution from MBOs and large format stores, while sales from EBOs has significantly increased.
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