The iconic American apparel brand Gap is finally set to make its India debut, as its first store is slated to open on Saturday in New Delhi in partnership with Arvind Lifestyle Brands.

Arvind Lifestyle Brands plans to open over 40 stores in the top 15-20 cities in the next five years.

“We plan to open 10 stores by mid-next year as part of our long-term plans of opening 40 stores in the next five years. The first set of stores will be in New Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore,” said J Suresh, MD and CEO of Arvind Lifestyle Brands.

“Gap is not a niche but a large opportunity for us and we believe it could have the revenue potential of about ₹1,000 crore in the next five years. The big advantage that we have with Gap is that it has got a fairly large brand awareness and we can readily reach out to consumers,” he added.

While the brand’s flagship store is about 11,000 sq ft, depending on the availability of real estate, it will be housed in stores that could range from about 7,000 sq ft to about 11,000 sq ft. Depending on the size of the stores, the company will be spending ₹8-10 crore per store, added Suresh.

Kulin S Lalbhai, Executive Director, Arvind Ltd, said Gap is among the top global ‘big box’ specialty retail brands that is expected to change the “brandscape” of India.

He said as part of the omni-channel strategy, the brand merchandise will also be launched soon on the e-commerce platform, as it builds its retail footprint in the country.

While Gap promises to bring in its casual American style to customers in India with the same range and quality that is available globally, it has tweaked its pricing strategy to ensure a competitive price range that attracts both mainstream as well as affluent buyers.

It will be offering its entire range of clothing and accessories for men, women and kids at its Indian stores.

Stefan Laban, SVP, Gap Specialty International, said: “We are not the brand for the few, but the masses and have spent a lot of time formulating our pricing strategy after studying the market and our competitors.

“We feel good about our pricing as we are competitively priced.”

On the importance of India, he said: “India is what we call the last big rock. It is clearly a big market and we have been looking at the market for some time. We have been trying to understand the needs of the customers and how strong the brand awareness has been. We believe with a strong partner the time is right now and we believe the brand has much more potential than our initial plans.”

Asia is one of the fastest growing regions for Gap and it hopes it will further get accelerated with its entry into India.

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