Alia Bhatt, actor, philanthropist and investor intends to take her fashion direct-to-consumer (D2C) startup Ed-a-Mamma to the United Arab Emirates and Europe. The actor revealed to PTI that Ed-a-Mamma is her first business venture, specialising in eco-friendly children's clothing at reasonable prices.
When asked by Bhatt about her plans for the next two-three years says, "I would like to focus on expanding outside India and add more categories to the brand. We started with a kids wear brand and are launching maternity wear this year.”
Bhatt further added that she would like to expand more into the infant segment.and would like to even add more vertical categories in and around the space of family care.
In October 2020, Ed-a-Mamma was launched after Bhatt noticed the absence of a top-tier domestic brand offering eco-friendly clothing options for kids at reasonable prices.
The business has been doing business on websites like FirstCry, AJIO, Myntra, and others.
When asked about international business plans, the actor said "UAE is first on our list. Once that gets kicked off, I think by next year, we should be up and kicking in UAE and then kind of expand to Europe as well. Maybe, a year after that, focus on the rest of the world," Bhatt said.
A team of 60 people has been hired by the actor to work at the business.
Ed-a-Mamma began with 160 options and now has more than 1,800 options, all of which were created and manufactured by the company at its own facility, according to her.
"In the first two years, I did not associate my name with the brand to test if the product will sell on its own or not. In the last three months our sales have gone up by 10 times. Now we are getting into retail. We have partnered with Lifestyle and Shoppers Stop. Our products will be available at 40 outlets by the end of this month," Bhatt said.
The actor claimed that, in addition to the company, Ed-a-brand Mamma's is more about storytelling to improve children's awareness of the environment.
"You are investing in children because you want them to be more sensitive towards the planet and the generations to come should also have the same ethos. The storytelling should tie-in from all aspects. While retail is one part of it, education and storytelling is another part of it. That's also something that I would like to look at," Bhatt said.
