Pearl Academy of Fashion to build new campus in Sriperumbudur

Venkatachari Jagannathan
07 September 2007

Chennai: Fashion design institute, Pearl Academy of Fashion has firmed up plans to build a new and bigger campus at Sriperumbudur near Chennai.

Identifying a 3-acre plot in Sriperumbudur, the institute will soon commence construction of 1.50 lakh sq.ft campus.

"The new proposed Chennai campus will be similar in size and infrastructure to our institutes in Jaipur and Delhi," says A K G Nair, group director.

According to him, Pearl Academy has plans to open a school in Mumbai and in three years the academy expects to double the student intake to 3,000..

Presently Pearl Academy is present in Delhi, Jaipur, Chennai and Ludhiana, Dhaka in Bangladesh and has one center in the UAE. The centres in Ludhiana and the UAE are franchised ones the remaining is owned by Pearl Academy.

The institute is not in favour of expanding its presence through franchisee model. A fashion college franchising is not like computer learning centres. The investment to be made by a franchisee is high and the break even point is also longer. Given this situation it is difficult to monitor the maintenance of infrastructure and standards, Nair explains.