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Business News/ Companies / News/  Fitness product sales rising in smaller cities: Abhishek Ganguly
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Fitness product sales rising in smaller cities: Abhishek Ganguly

In India, where the brand has 375 owned and franchised stores, besides an online presence, the category stoked consumer interest as they picked comfort and sportswear over formal and occasion wear, said Puma India MD Abhishek Ganguly

Abhishek Ganguly, managing director, Puma India and Southeast AsiaPremium
Abhishek Ganguly, managing director, Puma India and Southeast Asia

German retailer Puma reported a recovery in sales and profitability in its third quarter earnings as demand for fitness and comfort wear surged the world over. In India, where the brand has 375 owned and franchised stores, besides an online presence, the category stoked consumer interest as they picked comfort and sportswear over formal and occasion wear, said Abhishek Ganguly, managing director, Puma India and Southeast Asia, in an interview, adding that recovery is faster in smaller cities. In 2019, Puma India reported income of 1,413.26 crore, up 22% from a year ago, making it the top retailer of sports apparel and footwear. Edited excerpts:

In fashion, we have seen alliances between large e-commerce and offline retailers. Is Puma doing anything to leverage growth in e-commerce?

We are, at this stage, launching—going on and will only become stronger—an exclusive approach with our online partners. We do have consumer data from them, so you will see us do exclusive partnerships on a range of products.

This was reserved for stores. So, why change it now?

We are also doing that for our online partners. There are definitely products exclusively available in stores. But with e-commerce, we are also realizing that the earlier online-offline differentiation is actually becoming more focused. Within online, we are realizing that Myntra, for example, has a very different set of customers, with different expectations and behaviour. So, it’s not just an online-offline differentiation, we are doing a platform-based differentiation.

Globally, Puma reported a 13% jump in September quarter sales. Is India mirroring similar trends?

So, third quarter onwards, we have seen the momentum really picking up. Just to step back a bit—in March, April and May things were very tough. There was hardly any business in April since no channel was open. The reopening started in June and July. In August, September, October and the initial days of November, we have grown over last year. We have seen good traction and the traction has only been improving. September has been better than August, October has been better than September, and November seems to be better than October.

What did you do differently?

We have had a very clear multi-channel strategy, which helped us. During the reopening and, even in August, we were getting a lot of business from online sales. Over a period of time, things started opening up. First the high streets came back—we have a healthy mix of high street and mall stores. And I think our category is probably in demand right now, both on the performance side as well as on the athleisure side. We ensured we have the right product and we distributed it in the most optimized manner. Lastly, we continued to invest in marketing.

Will you report growth this year?

It’s still early days. If you take January-December sales, almost two months were completely wiped out due to the covid lockdown—that’s about one-sixth of the period. Even in June and July, we had a lot of restrictions in the number of hours of trading. That will have a drag effect. But if you look at August onwards, at least for us, we will be on growth versus last year. Clearly in sportswear, there is an uptick in business, because more and more people are probably working out. Second, athleisure is clearly becoming a trend.

What markets are leading demand right now?

For us, tier-2 and 3 have done well; they have been recouping business the fastest. Ludhiana, Amritsar, Srinagar, Varanasi and Allahabad are doing much better. I think there is increased awareness about brands and sportswear. Our store data and on puma.com show a lot of new people are buying fitness products, which they had never bought before. They might have bought a polo shirt from us before; they are now buying running tees and shoes. This could also be because of the movement out of large cities to smaller towns, which are home towns of working pros.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Suneera Tandon
Suneera Tandon is a New Delhi based reporter covering consumer goods for Mint. Suneera reports on fast moving consumer goods makers, retailers as well as other consumer-facing businesses such as restaurants and malls. She is deeply interested in what consumers across urban and rural India buy, wear and eat. Suneera holds a masters degree in English Literature from the University of Delhi.
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Published: 10 Nov 2020, 10:29 PM IST
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