Fashion and Lifestyle retail major Apparel Group plans to expand its presence in India, targeting 1000 stores in the next three years from the current 250 stores.
This expansion strategy aims to capitalise on India’s strong growth potential.
Additionally, the company is considering introducing more brands to India in segments such as fast fashion and food and beverages among others.
The Dubai-based retail major has a presence in several markets and the right to operate stores for various global brands. In India, it runs stores under various international brands such as Aldo, Bath & Body Works, Charles & Keith, Victoria’s Secret, Beverly Hills Polo Club, and Daiso, among others. It is also known for its own value fashion brand, R&B. It also operates the coffee chain Tim Hortons in India under a JV company, Apparel Gateway Café India.
Nilesh Ved, Co-Founder,Apparel Group, told businessline, “ We have a massive expansion planned for the Indian region.We are making significant investments. We have expansion plans for various brands in our portfolio including our own value fashion brand R&B besides Bath & Body Works, Aldo and Tim Hortons. So for instance in Aldo, with the BIS norms coming in we are manufacturing everything locally now, and hence going to expand to 150 stores from the current 70 stores. Similarly, we have 33 Tim Hortons outlets which will be expanded to 250 outlets. So we have plans across our brands.”
Recently, the company also bagged the rights for Crocs in the North and the Eastern part of India.“We see great opportunities with Crocs. We have opened the first store under this partnership, and nine of them are on the cards. In the next three years, we could look at 100 stores of the brand,” he explained.
The company said that the 750 additional stores across brands will be opened across big cities as well as in tier-2 and tier-3 markets. “The retail ecosystem is rapidly evolving in the country. More and more large format shopping malls are coming up in India as the ecosystem transitions from markets to malls.The next ten years is a golden era for retail and for India,” Ved stated.
Talking about plans for value retail fashion brand R&B in India, he said, “ We see huge potential in the value fashion segment, which will be our one of our key focus areas. For R&B, we will focus on opening atleast 200 stores in the next three years.”
Besides expanding the presence of existing brands, the company is also looking at new brands in certain segments, including the food and beverage space and fast fashion.” We are looking to bring two food and beverage concepts—Sushi Library and Allo Beirut—to India over the next 6-12 months.We also believe there are M&A opportunities in India’s food and beverage space,” Ved added.
He added that the company already works with some fast-fashion brands in the Gulf markets and is discussing bringing one to India.
The company said it has a strong omnichannel playbook and about 33 per cent of its overall sales now come from online channels.