7676 l l ENTREPRENEURENTREPRENEUR l l JJUULY 2019LY 2019
Franchisee
What is your next move?
We have recently signed
up to open two more
Celio stores in Hyderabad
and are in advanced
discussions with GAP
India to open their first
exclusive full-format store
in Hyderabad. In addition,
we look forward to take
the master franchise of
GAP in Hyderabad and
to open at least another
2-3 GAP stores across the
city. Our vision is to take
leading global brands to
even smaller districts or
towns in the country.I
n 2015, when Koushik Reddy had just
finished his MBA in Chennai, thefresher saw an opportunity in a ‘sick
store’ where even industry veterans
did not take a second look. A brandedretail store in Anna Nagar in Chennai was
running under loss and was up for sale.
Understanding the market potential, he
decided to take the plunge and took over
the store. Two months into the business,
the store was generating break-even sales
and within six months it showed profit.
Since then, there has been no looking back
and Reddy now owns 18 apparel stores,
including nine Lee/Wrangler and seven
Celio stores across Hyderabad, Bengaluru
and Chennai.
Taking over a sick
business is a tough call. How
did you make it?
For every franchise owner, it’s
important to be aware of the
numbers your competitors are
doing in a particular location.
Although any store would do
good business in the initial
days, how the sales grow and
whether the store thrives will
be completely dependent on
the store owner’s business
acumen. I always first study the
market before setting out for
the business. That’s the same
strategy which worked when
I decided to take over the sick
store in Chennai, fully knowing
its market potential. Moreover,
the exposure with my family
retail business worked in
my favour. My father owns
franchise of Lee and Wrangler
stores in Andhra Pradesh.
How did you manage
to grow from a single
store in 2015 to 18
stores in 2019?
The journey has been exciting.
The first-hand experience
with my first store gave me
the confidence to scale. I have
been lucky to have efficient
area managers. In fact, it
would not have been possible
to reach here if the local
managers were not given a
free hand to run the stores in
their respective territories.
Now my role corresponds
to weekly review meetings
with all my store managers,
understand their challenges
and guide them on how to
drive sales.
Above all, I choose the
brands very cautiously, as a
store cannot succeed without
the full support of a brand.What has been the
most exciting part of
your journey?
It’s exciting when your franchisor
brands trust your work and offer
additional responsibilities. Our
deep understanding of the retail
industry has helped us build
that trust. For instance, Celio’s
new India CEO Satyen Momaya
recently got in touch with me
and discussed about their new
franchise model. To test our
business acumen and operations
management skills, Celio asked
us to run a company-owned store
of the brand in the posh Jubilee
Hills in Hyderabad. We proved
ourselves within a couple of
weeks and the sales soared. The
brand was genuinely impressed,
which helped us takeover a store
in Bengaluru. We also bagged
the master franchise of Celio in
Hyderabad.An Eye for Challenge
For multi-unit franchise owner of brands like Lee, Wrangler and Celio, Balasai Koushik Reddy, a journey
that started as a challenge has now opened up exciting opportunities. By Shwetha Satyanarayan