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, is looking to grow in Spain, apart from the center of the big cities. The firm has seen a niche in these locations and has decided to focus its new plan on the country, says Sergi Brunet, general manager of the group in Spain.
Catalonia is their test bed and the place from which they will begin to support this expansion. “It is where the brand first entered, where we have our headquarters, more stores and experience, and that is why we have started this new stage of momentum here; when we finish, if everything goes as planned, in 2024 we will continue the expansion in other autonomous communities”, adds Brunet. The company wants to increase its fleet of stores in an accelerated manner and for this reason it will follow the model with which it started in Catalonia: agreements with already existing brands to transform their stores into a master franchise system and convert them into Okaïdi. “It allows us to grow more quickly and get good locations, especially at the foot of the street, 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 into Okaïdi. “Out of 50 Canada House stores, approximately 23 will become Okaïdi during these weeks; we have already signed agreements for twenty shops and we are in negotiations for three or five more”, continues the general manager. In this way, in just a few months they will multiply their presence in Catalan cities and go from the current 18 stores to more than 40. “We were interested in the locations they have, at the foot of the street, and it allows us to enter cities where we didn’t have much of a presence, like Girona”, he adds. For the whole of Spain, the aim 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 ones 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 S.A. reported revenues of more than 18 million euros in 2021, according to the accounts filed with the Mercantile Registry.
