Textiles firm Page Industries is coming out with its initial public offer. The company is a licensee of the US based Jockey International.

The company plans to use the money raised in this issue for capacity expansion and brand extension.

Ashok Genomal, Managing Director of Page Industries, says that they are going to expand their outlets and set up six flagship stores in the next three years only in the metros.

Excerpts from CNBC-TV18's exclusive interview with Ashok Genomal:

Q: Your roadshows are on right now, could you give us a sense of what sort of appetite that you might have seen across the country and otherwise from the investors you are talking to in relation to this issue?

A: If I were to say that in one word, I would say huge, I guess many of them are actually users of our brand and this is not just in the country but even in places like Singapore and Hong Kong, we have got a very positive response.

Q: Could you walk us geographically where the maximum response has come through in building up the book especially on the QIB side?

A: I would not know that for sure at this point, I have not really tracked that as something that Merchant bankers are doing but all I can say is that in all the three places that we have visited so far, the responses has been equally good. I think they have realized that we are a brand story riding the wave of a retail growth in India and they are very bullish on it.

Q: You are looking to raise close to about 110 crore at the topline of your priceband, could you walk us through again as to what specifically these areas would entail, how much will be brand extension, how much for existing growth in terms of retail outlets you have?

A: It is not brand extension, it is brand building, which basically includes expansion of our exclusive Jockey brand outlets, setting up of flagships stores as well in the region of 1500-1800 sq ft per store, six stores over the next three years only in the metros. These also include revamping and the modernizing 3,000 of our 14,000 outlets in terms of the display. That would take up half of the proceeds and the other half would be towards a capacity expansion.

Q: Particularly on your brand building excise that you have outlined, what are the key strategies that you would be following because you are looking at innovations, you are going to be looking at launching new brands and in terms of reworking your distribution strategy, can you throw more light on how you will be trying to revise your distribution model if at all you are looking at that option?

A: No, as a result of retail becoming more organized, it is like our brand grows almost in direct proportion to that retail becoming more organized, malls are coming up, infact they look to us to provide the exclusive outlets for inner wears in the mall, format stores are expanding, there is also the hyper markets, which have already approached us, which is something very exciting for us because it doubles our addressable universe in an organized manner; our brand lends itself well to this retail becoming more organized.

Our strategy is basically to create a lifestyle image for the brand, Jockey, we believe that two-three years from now the dynamics of competition is going to change and one brand alone will stand in this premium segment and so it is important for us to secure our lifestyle image apart from delivering the best products at value for money, attributes.

Q: When are your expansion plans likely to kick in?

A: Expansion has already started and the existing facility will grow up by 40% by next year, we have a new facility located about 10 kilometers away from our existing facility in Bangalore that will take it up to another 40% on top of next year’s capacity of 47 million. So we planned to be at approximately 74-75 million pieces in 2009 from 33 million today per annum.