Reliance Brands, a unit of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), has signed a deal with Future Lifestyle Fashion to launch stores for British sportswear brand Umbro in India. Reliance had announced an equal joint venture with Iconix Brand Group last year, branding the venture as Iconix Lifestyle. As a part of this joint venture, RIL controls the domestic rights for more than 20 international fashion brands of Iconix.
Umbro is famous for making football-related apparel, footwear and equipment. With the popularity of football growing in India, the brand will have good prospects in India. Darshan Mehta, CEO of Reliance Brands, said that Iconix works on direct to retailer concept, which is infancy stage in India. He further added that,” We want to take our time and license out the brands from Iconix to partners who have wide experiences in retailing.” The merchandise will be retailed by opening exclusive brand outlets by the next year.
This long term licensing partnership between the two companies is charting a new chapter in organized retail space in the country. The deal comes at a time when Reliance Retail has become the topmost retail chain in the country. It has reported 53 percent growth due to its presence in numerous formats.
The biggest drivers in this growth are cash-and carry stores developed by the retail chain. Known as Reliance Market, the first cash-and-carry store opened in Ahmedabad in September 2011. At the end of 2012-13, 56 percent of Reliance Retail’s revenue of Rs 10,800 crore came from its value segment that operated grocery chains like Reliance Fresh, Reliance Super and Reliance Hyper. The company is rapidly expanding its cash-and-carry segment. It has opened six stores in the June quarter, which helped the company to gain a 53 percent growth in revenue.
At the last annual general meeting, Mukesh Ambani said, “We want to make retail business as one of our growth engines over the next few years. I am confident that our retail business would undertake multi-fold growth in the next few years by delivering over 50 percent revenue growth in various format sectors year-on-year and is on its way to achieve revenue target of Rs 40,000-50,000 crore as shared by me in our last AGM.”
At present, the company owns 1,500 stores in 130 cities across the country. “Our multi-format strategy is paying huge dividends with most of the formats having positioned themselves as market leaders and is poised for strong growth in the future.” added Ambani.