On Chennai's Nungambakkam High Road stands a two-storey Go Colors store spanning nearly 2,000 sq ft. The apparel outlet has everything—from women's tops and ethnic daily wear to jeans, palazzos, joggers and even menswear. Women's leggings, a hybrid of the Indian churidar and tights, which had put the brand on the fashion map 15 years ago, occupies just three racks.
The display at this store lies at the heart of Gautam Saraogi's riskiest, yet most ambitious gamble. Having built Go Colors into one of India's largest bottomwear brands, the founder and chief executive is now attempting to turn it into a full-fledged apparel retailer, venturing into territory dominated for decades by the Tatas, Birlas and Ambanis.
In an interview with Mint, Saraogi said the company has drawn inspiration from retailers such as Uniqlo and Westside as it experiments with a wider everyday-wear proposition.
"We've taken some inspiration from that and said, okay, can we make a range which is 360 degrees all day," he said.
The pilot format currently spans about 15-20 stores, with the company deliberately keeping the experiment small before committing larger investments. While Go Colours has not disclosed the capital outlay, Saraogi said the initiative is being funded through internal cash flows and carries limited financial risk.
The pilot, launched within the past year, has shown encouraging early signs. Menswear already contributes about 13-14% of sales at the Chennai pilot store. The company plans to refine the product mix over the next six to seven months before deciding on a wider rollout.
"The early response has been encouraging," Saraogi said. "If the pilot is successful, we'll scale it from there. In the best-case scenario, it opens up an entirely new growth engine for the business."
Changing course
The move comes as Go Colours seeks to revive growth after two difficult years. In December, Mint had reported on the company grappling with weak demand for leggings, its flagship product, amid fashion shifts towards wider silhouettes and newer styles.
Same-store sales fell to -2.6% in the March quarter and -3.4% for FY26, reflecting weak demand and lower footfalls across stores. Saraogi said part of the challenge stems from the company's smaller outlets, which struggle to showcase its growing product portfolio. As a result, Go Colours is shutting smaller stores and replacing them with larger formats.
Analysts broadly agree that the company's recent struggles are linked to the limitations of its small-format stores. JM Financial said weak growth was driven by a "diluted consumer experience" in stores smaller than 300 sq ft, though it cautioned that the transition to larger stores could weigh on growth in the near term. Anand Rathi and Elara Capital have also highlighted pressure on same-store sales, store productivity and footfalls.
A former investor in the company, who did not wish to be identified, said the small-format model was once one of Go Colours' biggest advantages. Compact stores generated strong productivity by offering a deep assortment of bottomwear styles and a large number of stock-keeping units. While the shift to larger stores may make strategic sense, it represents a significant departure from the model that helped the company scale rapidly.
Balancing the core business
Saraogi said the pilot is not a pivot from the core business. Bottomwear still contributes about 99% of the company's ₹838 crore revenue. Instead, the objective is to build a second growth engine alongside the existing business.
Even within bottomwear, the mix has changed significantly. Leggings now account for only about 25% of sales, down from nearly 50% before the pandemic. The remaining 75% comes from categories such as trousers, palazzos, joggers and pants.
Go Colours plans to fund both store expansion and the pilot programme through internal accruals and operating cash flows, with no plans to raise debt. Saraogi said the company's strong balance sheet and disciplined inventory management provide enough flexibility to invest despite a weak FY26.
"In our business, the balance sheet health is measured by the operating cash flow that you generate," he said. "Over the last two to three years, we have strongly demonstrated that whatever profit we generate, a good percentage of that converts into operating cash flow."
The company reported revenue of ₹838 crore in FY26, down 1.2% from the previous year. Net profit fell 36.6% to ₹59 crore, while cash flow from operations stood at ₹165 crore.
Store expansion
As of 31 March 2026, Go Colours operated 802 exclusive brand outlets across 195 cities, including one store in the UAE. It also sold through more than 2,500 large-format multi-brand stores. Exclusive outlets remain the backbone of the business, contributing nearly 73% of sales, while large-format stores account for about 22%. Online channels contribute roughly 3%.
"Last year, our store count did not increase dramatically, but the area deployed in the business increased by more than 12%," Saraogi said pointing to the push for larger stores. "Going forward, we are measuring growth not just by the number of stores but by the square footage we operate."
Investors appear unconvinced by the company's transition story so far. Shares of Go Fashion, the listed firm that operates Go Colors, have fallen about 60% over the past year, underperforming peers and the broader market. In comparison, shares of Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail have declined about 25% over the period, while Trent fell around 23% on the NSE.
