YourLibaas, an Indian start-up for niche women’s designer clothing, is set to enter the UAE in its first expansion internationally, a company executive said.
The company also has plans to explore partnership deals with leading retail chains in the Gulf region as part of its ambitious growth and brand awareness plans.
“Our UAE subsidiary will go operational by the end of this month. We are currently in a pilot mode for testing the access for our products from our online stores there,” Khalid Raza Khan, founder and CEO of YourLibaas, told Arabian Business.
“We plan to move the marketing, procurement and supply chain integration activities of the company to the UAE, while continuing to carry out the production and customer care functions from India,” he said.
YourLibaas will join a long list of Indian companies, including Dabur, Titan, Tanishq, Cleartrip, FreshToHome and TutorComp, that have chosen the Gulf region for their maiden global expansion.
Khalid Raza Khan, founder and CEO of YourLibaas.
YourLibaas – Libaas is an Urdu word for attire – is a niche player in lawn designer apparel.
They sell hand-embroidered lawn wear, or Pakistani suits as they are popularly called.
Khalid said the UAE subsidiary will also cater to the company’s customers in international markets such as the US, the UK and Canada.
“Currently, we ship the products from India to the UAE and other international markets. With shipping charges in the UAE being very low – just about 20 percent of what it costs in India – we can make huge savings on logistic and other operational costs through our new subsidiary in the UAE,” said Khalid, who along with his younger brother Akram Tariq Khan – both computer science engineers – bootstrapped the start-up in 2014.
“Besides, about 20 percent of our orders at present come from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. We are hopeful of taking this to 60 percent through our operations in the UAE in a very short period.”
Akram, who takes care of the marketing functions of the company, said they will mainly target the diaspora from the sub-continent for growing the company’s market share in the region. There are around 2.5 million Indians living in the UAE and around 1.2 million Pakistanis.
Akram Tariq Khan, Co-founder of YourLibaas.
“The exquisite and exclusive designer collections of Pakistani lawn suits are popular and much sought after by the middle and upper middle class women from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, residing in the Gulf region. With our new subsidiary in the UAE, we will be able to reach out to this target audience faster and in a focused way,” Akram said.
On the company’s plans for partnership deals in the Middle East region, Khalid said: “We will definitely be exploring opportunities for entering into arrangements with leading retail chains such as LuLu or Carrefour. Such partnerships will, however, be mainly aimed at increasing the visibility and awareness for our brands.”
“We will be using our exclusive online stores for selling our collections in the UAE and other markets in the region,” he said.
Akram said besides its own labels, YourLibaas has exclusive and non-exclusive tie-ups with several leading Pakistani fashion designers such as Sapphire, Salitex, Sana Safinaz, Maria.B, Gul Ahmed, Saadia Asad, Asim Jofa and Farah Talib Aziz.
“Most of these designers also have their offline stores in the UAE. However, our venture will be the biggest store in the region where all these brands and labels will be available under one roof,” Akram said.
Unlike other women’s fashion wear, Pakistani suits are different as they are sold as different patches – such as neckline, borders or the different embroidery – which can be bought separately so that customers can design or get designs made to their individual choices.
Akram said a Pakistaini suit can cost anywhere between $50 to $200, depending on the label and embroidery of each patch.
“We also offer the services of stitching the suits for an additional cost of about $20,” he said.
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