Arvind Lifestyle Brands, a subsidiary of Arvind Ltd, one of the largest players in the apparel brands and retail space, has announced the acquisition of the business operations of British fashion retailers Debenhams and Next and American lifestyle brand Nautica in India from Plant Retail.
Announcing the acquisition, Mr Sanjay Lalbhai, Chairman & Managing Director of Arvind Ltd, said, “These acquisitions will accelerate our growth and contribute to our vision of achieving sales of Rs 5,000 crore over the next five years,”
This acquisition assumes importance as the company enters into the department store segment and also the globally fast growing apparel specialty retail segment.
"American sportswear lifestyle brand Nautica makes us the dominant player in the sportswear segment. With this move, we have taken a big step towards strengthening our position in the Indian fashion industry. We have a strong menswear portfolio, which will get further strengthened with Nautica. Debenhams and Next will substantially strengthen our position in Womenswear & Kidswear segment," he said.
The company plans to achieve Rs 500 crore revenue over the next five years from the current Rs 70 crore by investing Rs 150 crore into these three brands,” said J. Suresh, Managing Director & CEO, Arvind Lifestyle Brands Ltd.
Acquisition of Debenhams signals the entry of Arvind into the bridge to luxury department store segment. Arvind plans to increase the current number of Debenhams stores in India from two to eight in the next three years.
Arvind will enter into apparel specialty retail through Next. The company plans to increase to increase the number of Next stores from three to 12 in the next three years.
The licensing arrangement with Nautica will strengthen Arvind’s already strong position in high potential sportswear segment of the market. The company plans to set up additional 30 Nautica stores taking the tally to 41 free standing Nautica stores and 71 shop in shops in the next three years.
The Arvind Ltd stock was trading marginally up at Rs 78.50 at 12.50 p.m. on the BSE.