Medium-sized cities, with around 25,000 inhabitants, where the commercial offer is not abundant and the textile giants do not have a presence. It is the type of market that the children's fashion company Okaïdi, from the French group IdKids, seeks to grow in Spain, apart from the center of large cities. The firm has seen a niche in these locations and has decided to focus its new plan in the country on them, says Sergi Brunet, general manager of the group in Spain.
Catalonia is their test bench and the place from where they will begin to shore up this expansion. “It is where the brand entered for the first time, where we have the headquarters, more stores and experience, and that is why we have started this new stage of momentum here; when we finish and if everything goes as planned, in 2024 we will continue with the expansion in other autonomous communities”, adds Brunet. The company wants to increase its number of stores rapidly and to do so it will follow the model with which it has started in Catalonia: agreements with existing brands to transform their stores into a master franchise and reconvert them into Okaïdi. "It allows us to grow faster and get good locations, especially at street level, which is where we want to be," continues Brunet. In Catalonia, at the end of June, they announced an agreement with the Talaman family group to transform part of their Canada House stores in Okaïdi. “Of 50 Canada House stores, approximately 23 will become Okaïdi during these weeks; We have already signed agreements for twenty stores and we are negotiating for another three or five”, continues the CEO.
In this way, in just a few months, they will multiply their presence in Catalan cities, going from the current 18 stores to more than 40. "We were interested in the locations they have, at street level, and it allows us to enter cities where we did not have much presence, like Girona”, he adds. For all of Spain, the goal is to go from the current 60 points of sale to 120 in five years. "Once we exceed one hundred stores, we plan to open a logistics center here, specifically in Catalonia," says the manager.
Spain is the third market by sales volume for IdKids, only behind France and Italy. The group, one of the main companies in children's fashion, with a presence in more than 70 countries, had a turnover of 918 million euros in the last financial year. In Spain, Okaïdi SA reported income of more than 18 million euros in 2021, according to the accounts deposited in the Mercantile Registry.
