New Delhi: Lifestyle jeans brand Spykar is venturing into the kids wear segment with the launch of its new brand, OYO, in about a month.

Spykar marketing director Sanjay Vakharia said, "We will be launching the brand 'OYO' for the age group of 4-14 sometime in the month of May 2008, and the product would be outsourced from reputed vendors."

Spykar plans to establish 30 exclusive brand outlets during the first phase of its retail plans at an investment of around Rs15 crore, spread across 12 to 15 cities, followed by an expansion of the range into multi-brand outlets during the next phase. Funding for the roll out is to be done through internal accruals.

Talking about the concept for OYO, which is an acronym for 'On Your Own', Vakharia says, "With the launch of OYO, shopping abroad for children clothes may be quite unnecessary. Fabrics available all across the world are same but it just depends on how you treat it to get the right finish. With our experience of worked – upons in the denim wear and cotton category, we hope to create complete magic in the kids wear category. Like father – Like son, Like mother – Like daughter is the kind of in – vogue dressing we'll promote as a part of OYO. We sense a need in this category and we'll surely have offerings radically different from those available".

"We plan to have a total of 75 stores by the end of this calendar year,'' said Vakharia, while adding that the company also plans to introduce this brand at select multi-brand outlets including Shoppers Stop during the next season. This venture will see Spykar compete with established kids wear brands such as Gini and Jony, Ruff, Lilliput, and Raymond's recently launched kids wear brand Zapp. Vakharia said that the company was looking at sealing a deal for a dedicated collection for the OYO brand besides looking at getting into the premium jeans wear segment.

"Spykar might get into premium jeans wear through a hybrid of licensing and self-created brand and we have talked to some companies in that regard. However, we have no plans to bring a foreign brand into India'', he added.

Spykar had recently concluded a deal with Avigo Capital Partners for a capital infusion of $5 million, and is keeping its options open for an IPO sometime later in 2010, as at present the current conditions in the markets are 'very bad'.

''The money from the stake sale would also be used for expanding the reach of our Spykar outlets from 140 stores currently to 175 stores by December 2008," Vakharia said.

Industry estimates peg the kids apparel market in India at about Rs27,000 crore, of which only about Rs500 crore is part of the organised sector.

According to the India Apparel Report by Images F&R Research, which has been published in recently released Images Yearbook 2008, the kids wear market in India including uniforms has seen a growth of 18.2 per cent in the year 2007, while kids wear market witnessed annual value growth of 22.5 per cent in 2007 as compared to 2006.