Bangalore-based legendary bespoke suit specialist P N Rao has come to Chennai with a 5,000 sq ft showroom.

The store in Alwarpet retails a range of ready-to-wear suits from Van Heusen, Louis Philippe, Givo, Blackberrys, V. and Park Avenue. For custom tailoring, suit and shirt fabrics from Raymond, Morarji, Reid & Taylor and J Hampstead are used. Options range from formal wear to occasion wear, besides tuxedos, ethnic wear and accessories.

“Today, everyone knows the importance of dressing well. While office-wear has become casual, people still wear suits for meetings and other client-facing engagements. While the utility for a suit in India is not so high, it is slowly growing,” says Mr Naveen Pishe, Partner at P N Rao, which has positioned itself in the space between premium and super-premium.

P N Rao, which was set up in 1923 by the late Mr P. N. Rao, has three retail showrooms in Bangalore, clocking Rs 20 crore sales annually. “We have 10 crore loyal customers. The average age of our customers is 32 years. And 25 per cent of our sales is from repeat business.”

The Chennai showroom is its first outside Bangalore. Next on the cards is a store in Hyderabad next year.

The retailer is also looking to launch its own brand of suits and shirts. It is setting up a suit manufacturing facility in Hoskote, at an investment of Rs 6 crore. The plant, with a production capacity of 150 suits a day, will be operational in a year.

“We are also looking at setting up a ‘craft your own shirt’ corners in malls,” said Mr Pishe.

swethak@thehindu.co.in