“India is not ready for all International brands”

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: Pavers England, a well-known high street footwear brand from the UK, has big plans for India. Pavers England Footprints Ltd (PEFL), the company that manages the brand in India, has just completed a year in the country with sales topping $1.5 million. It currently sells its footwear through more than 50 multi-brand outlets and two of its own stores but now plans to expand its presence to at least 500 points of sales by 2012. Stuart David Paver, president and chairman of PEFL and managing director of Pavers Ltd, the UK company founded by his mother Catherine Pavers almost four decades ago, was in India recently. FE’s Arunima Mishra caught up with him to discuss the company’s larger India plans.

What are PEFL’s retail expansion plans for India? Has the retail slowdown in the country impacted your business in any way?

In many ways our expansion plans have been helped by the slowdown as it has made the sourcing of high-quality retail space much easier. It has also meant that many weaker brands have left the Indian market while others have put off their entry into the market on hold.

Our retail plans have changed since we started in the market just over a year ago but we are already working with all the best department store groups in the country. We now see our major thrust being the expansion of franchise stores where we have more control of the retail environment.

The main area of investment of Rs 50 crore over the next 18 months will definitely be aimed at increasing our retail footprint. We are aiming to have 500 points of sale across the country by 2012. However, we will shortly be signing off an expansion of our R&D (research and development) centre to allow it to produce quick response repeats of footwear to back up our retail ambitions.

As part of the project, Pavers had announced last year that it would commission a $3 million footwear design studio in Chennai. What happened to the plan?

This facility is 95% operational and is beginning to pay dividends in relation to our ability to customise products for the Indian market and get new products to market around the world. We believe this facility is the major part of our Indian heart statement, which is a key feature of our logo and marketing.