UK fashion brands head for India

Global UK fashion retailers eyeing the fast growing Indian market are looking for local partners to help gain entry into malls and commercial complexes.

The brands include Butterfly Twists, Joe Bloggs, House of Gods, Religion Clothing, Ringspun, Traffic People, Santa Monica and Voi Jeans.

As India’s growing middle class become increasingly brand sensitive more and more retailers are looking at their options to enter the tough Indian market.

While India has lifted restrictions on single-brand retailers from abroad, the complexities of the retail market are discouraging many prospective entrants leading them to forge relationships with local partners instead.

India has a $500 billion a year retail industry, but just seven or eight per cent of this is described as “organised” with the entire Indian retail market dominated by food and grocery. Apparel accounts for just 17 per cent at present.

Brandspoke, a London-based brand management company with a presence in India, helps foreign investors getting into India. For the last decade it has teamed up with Future Group for its private labels and with Dabur for health and wellness, under the name NewU.

“We have been approached by a number of brands to help them enter India, and we are starting to. India is gaining focus and nobody can afford to ignore the market,” said Brandspoke director Michael Pike.

The India Fashion Forum later this month will provide a venue for UK retailers and their Indian counterparts such as mall developers and fashion retailers to get together. But according to Pike, finding a local partner of some size is easier said than done. The larger Indian retailers such as Future Group, Reliance Retail and SKNL, are wooed by numerous brands from abroad.

“The interesting thing about India is that consumers are demanding more brands, but the Indian retail market is in an early stage and too complex for newer brands to understand it quickly. They are all in need for a special on-ground local partner’s expertise,” Pike said.

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