Mumbai:
Arvind Lifestyle Brands Ltd, a unit of of Arvind Ltd, acquired the business operations of British fashion retailers Debenhams, Next and American lifestyle brand Nautica in India from Planet Retail on Thursday.
The acquisition marks the group’s entry into the department store segment which has retail chains including Shoppers Stop, Lifestyle and Pantaloons.
“With this move, we have taken a big step towards strengthening our position in the Indian fashion industry. These acquisitions will accelerate our growth and contribute to our vision of achieving sales of Rs.5,000 crore over the next five years,” said Sanjay Lalbhai, chairman and managing director of Arvind Ltd.
The retail business of Arvind Lifestyle has licensing relationships with international brands including Gant, Arrow, Izod, Energie, US Polo Association, Elle, Cherokee, Mossimo and Geoffrey Beene.
“We plan to achieve Rs.500 crore revenue over the next five years from the current Rs.70 crore by investing Rs.150 crore into these three brands” said J. Suresh, managing director and chief executive of Arvind Lifestyle Brands.
Currently, there are two Debenhams stores in India and following the acquisition the company will have eight Debenhams stores in five cities in the next five years. Next plans to re-launch the brand in India and Nautica plans to set up 30 additional stores taking the tally to 41 stores and 71 shop-in-shops in the next three years.
Arvind Ltd stock was trading at Rs.78.05, down 0.45% on the BSE, while the benchmark Sensex was 18,615.49 points, down -0.09%, at 2.01pm.
