In its first outing abroad, Kishore Biyani’s retail giant Future Group has announced a joint venture with an Omani conglomerate, Khimji Ramdas LLC, to sell clothes and accessories through its ‘fbb’ outlets in West Asia.
The 50:50 joint venture will have an equity infusion of ₹150 crore. Biyani said here at an event to mark the MoU between the two groups.
The new company will be named KR Future Fashions LLC and intends to target the significant Asian, particularly the Indian diaspora in the region.
The move is part of the Future Group’s plans to make ‘fbb’ a global fashion brand, said Kishore Biyani, Group CEO. “We also plan to extend our partnership to our food and FMCG brands and look forward to a fruitful journey with the KR Group.” The stores will be about 10,000-15,000 sq ft in size and situated in malls. The first such store – Future is targeting between 15 and 20 initially – is likely to open by the first quarter of next year, “or may be earlier,” Biyani said. Like in India, fbb will cater to the value segment as Omani shoppers tend to be price-conscious, Nailesh Khimji, Director, Khimji Ramdas LLC, told
The Khimji Ramdas Group was established over 148 years ago in Oman and has interests in consumer, infrastructure and logistics arenas.
The group has over 400 global and local brands, a network of more than 3,500 distributor points, and over 150 retail outlets, including lifestyle and watches showrooms, restaurants, Ooredoo telecom shops, and the SPAR and Al Asalah supermarkets.
Nailesh Khimji, Director, Khimji Ramdas LLC, said: “Our part of the world has a large segment of millennials, which represents an opportunity in the accessible fashion market for us to jointly pursue with “fbb”. Oman will be the perfect springboard for moving into the GCC and the wider region.” The Khimji Ramdas group is already a distributor for several Indian brands, including for consumer products by Godrej, Britannia and Amul.