The story behind multi award-winning label Aftershock is as romantic as the clothes it sells. Hiro and Radhika Harjani migrated to the UK after their families disapproved of their love and attempts to marry in India. Borne out of a passion for beautiful fabrics and exquisite clothing, the pair began the story in 1985 on a market stall in Petticoat Lane in London’s East End. What followed is a spectacular range of stylish, contemporary evening and daywear, and a company that boasts a growing portfolio of distinct ‘fashion destinations’ with an ever-growing number of stores and concessions.
In fact, Aftershock has almost 300 stores and concessions over a huge geographical spread that covers the UK, Italy, Slovakia, Albania, Egypt, Morocco, the Lebanon, Libya, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, to name but a few. New openings include stores in Dallas in the US in April and in Macedonia in September. Most recently, Aftershock opened two new stores in Bratislava, Slovakia.
“We plan to roll out somewhere between 15-20 new stores worldwide in 2012, including less obvious countries, such as Ghana,” comments Executive Chairman Hiro Harjani.
Stores are generally between 160-180sq m in size and, outside the UK, Aftershock works closely with franchise partners to ensure that it benefits from local knowledge and experience. In terms of generating footfall through strategic placement, Aftershock’s preferred retail ‘partners’ include the likes of Karen Millen, Ted Baker and Reiss.
The Harjanis have also launched two new brands: World of Accessories and Little Buddha.
Currently, e-commerce plays a fairly low-key role in the overall business, though it has nevertheless grown some 20 per cent year-on-year and the impact of social media has certainly been more telling over the past 18 months, with the brand’s new Facebook page proving particularly popular.
There are of course still challenges to be faced, as Harjani himself points out: “The UK market, for instance, is very tough; it is difficult to do business here thanks to high costs and high rents.
For the full article, please see the February 2012 issue.
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