Comments
American athletic footwear and apparel brand New Balance on Tuesday marked its debut in India.
The company, which opened its first store in the National Capital Region, plans to ramp up the number of stores to 50 in the next three years. The company has adopted distribution agreement model for its business in India. The distribution agreement will be with Mumbai-based Major Brands Group.
Darren Tucker, Vice-President, Asia-Pacific, New Balance told BusinessLine , “Our plan is to launch our brand from a global positioning while understanding the needs of the Indian consumers. We will be focusing on opening stores in the first year in the Northern region. We aim to open 50 stores over the next three years in the top metros.”
He, however, did not disclose the company’s investments. “It is not just about sales or the number of stores, but we want our brand to be represented in a consistent manner and have a sustainable financial model for our partners,” he added.
New Balance, will be positioned in the premium segment, which is one of the key reasons, why the company will initially focus on major metros where consumers are ready to pay those prices.
Tucker said, “Typically when we enter markets like India which are complex not only from the consumer point of view but the legal structure point of view we do that through partnerships. FDI in single brand retail in India is still an evolving process.”
He said the company will also look at manufacturing in the country. Already the company has some footwear partners that make in India for its other markets and the company hopes to leverage on these manufacturers to cater to the Indian market too.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.