Over the years, the sport equipment industry as well as athleisure market has seen the entry of many players and now the sector boasts of players such as Curefit, AnytimeFitness, HRX among others. While consumers in metropolitan areas have access to these products, availability remains a challenge in tier-1,2 and 3 cities. Interestingly, Mukesh Bansal owned cult.sport, a fitness brand from the house of Curefit, aims to change that as it plans to expand offline and online presence. “We initially focussed on the direct-to-consumer (D2C) model, wherein products were sold via the app and online marketplaces incuding Flipkart, Amazon, and Myntra. However, we intend to open offline stores, thereby moving to an omnichannel model,” Shamik Sharma, general manager, cult.sport told Brandwagon Online. Sharma however, declined the comment on the number of offline stores, the company plans to open.
Curefit’s revenue from operation grew 33.7% to Rs 215.7 crore in FY22 from Rs 161.3 crore in FY21, as regulatory filings accessed by business intelligence platform, Tofler. The company’s net loss rose 2.8% to Rs 689.9 crore in FY22 from Rs 671.1 crore, during the same period, in the corresponding year.
The sister brand of cult.fit – cult.sport sells sports and fitness products while cult.fit is the fitness product which runs gymnasiums across cities. The company’s advertising spends went up by 24.7% to Rs 89.04 crore in FY22 from Rs 71.43 crore in FY21. The brand aims to spend approximately Rs 28-30 crore by December this year. “We spend approximately 10% of our advertising spend on traditional media. However, with the festive period fast approaching, we intend to ramp it up to 30%. The rest will be spent on digital. We actively invest in influencer marketing, putting out 10-15 pieces of content every month with influencers besides putting out social media content of the brand,” he added.
According to Cult.sport, its target audience comprises active individuals between the ages of 18-45 years. The brand claims to cater to all levels of fitness enthusiasts and casual sports participants, offering a range of high-quality sportswear and accessories. As per Sharma, the average order size is polarised as it has many high-priced stock-keeping units (SKUs) such as treadmills which can cost approximately Rs 10,000. “On the other hand, we also sell very low SKU items such as table-tennis balls or a t-shirt and so on, which can be under Rs 200. So it varies a lot,” he explained. The company claims that its average order value ranges between Rs 3000-3500 range.
According to the company, metros account for 55% of its sale, while the rest 45% comes from non-metros cities. “ Marketplaces including Flipkart, Amazon, Myntra and almost similar numbers, account for half of our revenue comes but slightly less comes from our channels. We have a website called scope.com, we have an app, and people buy from there as well. We’ll probably have three large channels, one of them being our app and website. Second being marketplaces, and the third being offline stores,” added Sharma.
Furthermore, the brand unveiled its new brand campaign titled ‘Sport Everyday’ which focuses on the insight that India is a nascent sports participation market. “Our new advertising and marketing initiatives are centred around two key strategies. Firstly, there is a significant focus on influencer marketing, aiming to connect with everyday athletes through relatable individuals. Secondly, substantial investments are planned in regional TV, OTT, connected TV, YouTube, and Meta platforms,” Mohammad Shahbaaz, head of marketing, cult.sport, said.
The overall budget for the creation and promotion of the entire campaign is Rs 10 crore. Of this, the company claims that Rs 8 crore will be spent on digital advertising and approximately Rs one crore each will be spent on television and influencer marketing. The company intends to increase its marketing spend as it continues establishing itself in people’s minds. Sharma highlighted that Indian celebrities would also be a part of it. “We intend to be very aggressive in making sure that people understand that there is a homegrown Indian brand, that is caring about their ways of thinking about sports and fitness,” added Sharma.