Popees opens 100th outlet in Kerala and targets one thousand store network

Popees opens 100th outlet in Kerala with a new exclusive store in Koduvally, Kozhikode, marking a key milestone in the brands retail journey. The launch is also its eighty seventh outlet in the state, underlining how deeply rooted Popees Baby Care has become in the southern market while it ramps up national and global expansion.

Founded more than two decades ago in Thiruvali, Malappuram by managing director Shaju Thomas, Popees has grown from a local babywear business into a trusted label that now reaches young families across India and several international markets. The brand presence today spans exclusive stores in India as well as in the United Arab Emirates, Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, France and New Zealand, reflecting steady internationalisation from a regional base.

How fast is Popees expanding in India and abroad

The hundredth store is not just a round number. It signals the start of the next phase of Popees growth plan. The company has already mapped out twenty five new outlets as part of its immediate expansion strategy, with a sharper focus on building presence in North India while deepening its footprint across Gulf Cooperation Council countries.

The long term vision is clear. Popees wants to move from one hundred stores to a one thousand store network over the next four years, using a mix of exclusive outlets and evolving retail channels. That scale would firmly place it among the most widely distributed organised baby care brands from India.

For Indian retail, this trajectory shows how regional specialists can build out from strong local loyalty, then use that base to enter new geographies and categories.

Product quality and export ready standards

A central pillar of the Popees story is its emphasis on product quality and safety. Each Popees Baby Care product passes through twenty eight export quality checks designed to ensure purity, comfort and reliability. These checks help reassure parents on aspects such as fabric softness, skin friendliness and durability.

In a category where trust is non negotiable, such standards have helped the brand position itself as more than just a fashion choice. For many families, Popees becomes part of the daily routine for clothing and essentials from birth to toddler years.

Why is Popees entering the FMCG and sustainability space

Alongside apparel and baby essentials, Popees has begun to diversify into fast moving consumer goods through bamboo based tissues and bamboo woven apparel. These additions reflect two converging priorities in the childcare market

• Parents are increasingly conscious about the environmental impact of products they buy for their children

• There is rising demand for baby safe, skin friendly, and biodegradable options

Bamboo based formats allow Popees to speak to both needs. They sit naturally within the brand positioning of softness and care, while signalling that the company is thinking about long term sustainability, not only short term trends.

What does the hundredth store mean for the brand

For founder and managing director Shaju Thomas, the hundredth outlet is as much an emotional milestone as a business one. He describes the achievement as a celebration of trust, love and dedication shared between customers, employees and well wishers. That language reinforces the idea that Popees is built on relationships as much as on real estate.

As the brand widens its reach, the challenge will be to preserve that sense of closeness while operating at greater scale. Exclusive stores give Popees tighter control over visual merchandising, staff training and service standards, making it easier to maintain a consistent experience as the network grows.

Impact on the organised baby care market

For the broader Indian retail landscape, the growth of Popees highlights the potential of organised baby care as a category. Younger parents are moving away from unbranded options and are willing to invest in specialised products that combine safety certifications, design and convenience.

Popees opens 100th outlet in Kerala at a moment when regional brands with strong local equity are beginning to scale nationally and even globally. Its move into sustainable FMCG, combined with an aggressive store rollout plan, suggests that the next wave of growth in baby care will be led by players who can blend trust, innovation and thoughtful expansion.

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