Luxury brands Dolce & Gabbana, Stella McCartney and Alexander McQueen are opting for joint ventures as a vehicle to open exclusive stores in India.

Priya Sachdev of Indian-based TSG International Marketing has confirmed the company is in preliminary talks with the brands.

“As consumer demand grows here, they want to have mono-brand stores for bigger presence, business and visibility,” said Sachdev.

The expansion plans come at a pivotal time for luxury brands as Indian luxury market is set to grow Rs 81,423 crore (US$14.7 billion) by 2015 from Rs32,126 crore (US$5.8 billion) in 2011, according to projections by AT Kearney.

“The market is growing steadily and many brands want to have bigger businesses here,” said Arvind Singhal of Technopak Advisors. “Unfortunately, in India there are very few multi-brand luxury formats,” he added.

Meanwhile, TSG International Marketing plans to open another two Kitsch stores next year. Kitsch, is a luxury multi-brand store which started its operation in 2005.

“By the end of this year we will have another store in Hyderabad and one more in Chennai by next year. We are also planning to bring more brands,” said Sachdev.

GB