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Japanese sportswear brand ASICS is stepping up store expansion with a strong focus on tier-2 and tier-3 markets. The performance footwear major is also ramping up local sourcing and has begun selling made-in-India products at the stores.
Rajat Khurana, Managing Director, ASICS India and South Asia, said, “ We have a strong pipeline and plan to open 10-12 stores by the year-end. We have witnessed a strong resurgence in footfalls at the stores in the past few months, which is higher than pre-pandemic levels. Performance footwear and apparel categories are driving our sales. With nearly 35 per cent of sales coming from tier-2 and tier-3 cities, we are also strongly focusing on expanding our retail footprint beyond tier-1 markets.”
The brand is also in the process of revamping its stores in line with the new global retail concept. “ The new retail concept aims to provide unique shopping experiences with a strong focus on innovation, creativity and sustainability. ” he added.
Growth despite inflation
Talking about measures to tackle inflationary pressures, Khurana said that the brand has largely been absorbing the higher raw material costs so far. “ For the next season collections, we have taken a slight hike in prices only on select products to the tune of 4-5 per cent. But we haven’t seen much impact on sales due to inflation. We are aiming at a growth of 25-30 per cent in 2022 compared to last year,” he added.
The brand continues to see strong growth on the e-commerce channel. “ Nearly 35 per cent of our overall business comes through digital channel which includes the e-commerce marketplaces and the brand’s D2C site,” Khurana said.
Asked about the company’s plans to open its own branded stores under the single brand FDI policy, Khurana said,“ We have been quite focused on scaling up local sourcing for footwear and apparel for both Indian and international markets. We have been also exporting products from India to other ASICS subsidiaries. We have begun selling a wider apparel range, which is a mix of both made-in-India and imported products, at our stores. “
The footwear major expects to comply with the norm for 30 per cent mandatory local sourcing over the next 4-5 years to be able to open a few large-format company-owned stores in the country under the single brand FDI policy.
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