bengaluru in a country rich in ethnic and cultural diversity the retail market has spawned only a handful of local brands with nationwide appeal lessons from overseas are instructive the deep pockets of foreign counterparts has set certain benchmarks and this throws up a huge challenge for homegrown brands to scale said bidisha nagaraj group president of retail coffee chain cafe coffee day now a new generation of entrepreneurs is bucking the trend with venturebacked companies designing products for and around indian sensibilities they include wildcraft which makes outdoor apparel and gear chumbak which designs and sells lifestyle products id fresh food which specialises in fresh preservativefree readytocook food and retail tea chain chai point all have created a niche for themselves and some have gone global as well sequoiabacked wildcraft made product its dna as soon as it shifted focus from being a custom manufacturer to a consumerfacing brand in 2008 the company invested in a design lab of about 20 people we design for india and made that our strong point said cofounder gaurav dublish the firms brand imagery was all about making the outdoors democratic it studied usage reacted to consumer needs and then put all that learning into the product this doesnt necessarily mean you are climbing the top of the mountain said dublish indians use backpacks differently from people in the west we want organisation pockets and compartments in one bag he said the success of the strategy and commitment to brand building show in the numbers wildcraft expects sales to rise to rs 200220 crore in the year to march up from rs 150 crore in the year before it entered the middle east and southeast asian markets in july last year chai points founder amuleek singh bijral designed a business model that owns the ritual of chai for upper workingclass indians albeit one that was seen as contemporary and cool we had hit a sweet spot for a need said bijral who went on to raise venture funding from saama capital eight roads ventures and dsg consumer partners but building a brand means taking the right calls one and a half years into the journey bijral realised chai point had erred on pricing and location having opened in some cheap real estate areas we realised aspirations of indians was increasing so a brand has to be out of their reach its not a brand if it doesnt evoke emotion bijral said the company shut 1015 of its stores and reopened in more upmarket locations bengalurubased chumbak which was set up five years ago faced a somewhat similar situation have started as a manufacturer of indiathemed souvenirs and accessories it was selling at kiosks and shopinshops it decided to scrap this retail strategy and open exclusive retail stores instead last year by shonali advani et bureau published on feb 9 2016 at 0805 am ist telegram facebook copy link be the first one to comment comment now comments comment now read comment 1