can a business happen by chance ask dilip kapur founder and president of leather accessory brand hidesign and hell tell you thats exactly how things worked out for him kapur ran into the leather business when he did a ninemonth stint with american company poor richards while working on his phd at the university of denver he had run through his stipend and the poor richards offer was the best he had after completing his phd kapur returned to india in 1977 to settle down at auroville the global commune on the outskirts of puducherry since he had enough time to try out some of the things he had learnt at poor richards kapur started handcrafting leather bags as a hobbyanother chance encounter this time when a friend showed his bags to german ngo dw shop fetched kapur his first bulk order he was asked to supply 1400 bags but did not have the industrial scale necessary to complete the order he supplied 300 bags which earned him rs 90000 with that and an additional rs 25000 kapur was in business and in 1978 hidesign was bornfor the first two decades the brand retailed exclusively in the us europe and uk in stores like selfridges and john lewis in 1990 kapur set up his current factory a leafy campus dotted with red brick buildings designed by ray meeker an expert in lowcost ecofriendly architecture the brand which started retailing in india in 2000 now has 60 outlets in 12 cities we should hit 100 stores across the country in the next 18 months says kapurthe growth spurt is understandable in 2001 india comprised only 6 of the companys overall business now it commands 65 indias leather accessories market has grown annually by 2530 all through the last decade hidesigns overseas footprint too has changed dramatically following the retail recession in europe and the us right now our fastest growing markets abroad are vietnam malaysia south africa burma and australia kapur says he says the crowded european and american markets gave hidesign a tough timein india the plans include diversification of range as well as brand extension french luxury giant louis vuitton is a stakeholder in hidesign but kapur is now working on another jv with italian brand braccialini the italian partner will do the designs but eventually the jv will start manufacturing in hidesigns puducherry factory the plan is to have 60 locallymade bags in two years says kapur the range will be priced between rs 15000 and rs 25000hidesign which has an annual revenue of rs 110 crore now is also launching its own luxury range it is launching brand extensions too starting with a sunglass range all good lifestyle brands go that way because it needs to go beyond the product and talk to the customers lifestyle kapur sayswhile a jv with rohit bal is off the holii collection launched in a jv with kishore biyanis future group is expected to break even next year for an entrepreneur