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With lifestyle sports segment on an upswing, Italian sports brand Lotto Sports Italia has said that pricing, along with retail expansion, will be the key strategy on which the company is betting its future growth.
The company, which marked its second innings into the country by renewing licensing and marketing arrangement with Sports Lifestyle, said it is doubling mono-brand stores count from the present 50 outlets.
“We will be playing on the price factor and maintain prices notches below leading lifestyle sports brands to make our products more affordable,” Mr Lalit Kishore, Managing Director, Sports Lifestyle, said.
Sports Lifestyle was appointed as an exclusive licensee in India for Lotto in 2007 and the licensing contract has been extended for 15 years beginning this month.
The company said the booming middle class is spearheading its growth and Lotto expects India to be its top market in Asia-Pacific. Currently, India comes third after China and Japan in terms of turnover for Lotto.
“Besides doubling our mono brand outlets, we will also be opening 150 shop-in-shops in the major departmental stores like Shopper's Stop and Reliance Footprint,” he said. The mono brand outlets will be set up with an estimated investment of Rs 20 lakh a store and will entail a retail area of 500-700 sq feet.
Mr Kishore said that the company follows a cluster-approach in retail expansion and has mostly expanded in North. “We recently ventured into Nepal. We will be shortly going to the western region”.
According to an ICRIER study, the branded sportswear market in India is estimated to be near $1 billion, 75 per cent of which is controlled by Reebok and Adidas. Nike's market share is closer to 15 -20 per cent. Lotto was present in the 1980s through multi-brand retailers like Bata.
The sports lifestyle business has been growing at an estimated 30-40 per cent per annum and corporates like Future Group and Reliance Retail too have entered into sports retailing fuelling growth in the sector. This apart, the proliferation of sports channels has also increased awareness about sports.
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