UK-based retail chain Debenhams is revising its India market strategy under which it plans to re-open two stores — one in South Mumbai and another in South Delhi. The company also plans a bigger thrust on online sales.
The company has already commenced online sales and its products are currently available on e-commerce sites, such as Myntra, Flipkart, Yebhi.com and Snapdeal.
“We have shut down our current stores and are looking at different locations to re-open these stores. We are mainly looking to open stores in South Mumbai and South Delhi, but have not found any location yet. We are also looking at e-commerce to increase our sales,” said J Suresh, MD & CEO of Arvind Lifestyle Brands.
Locations haven’t worked out well for the Debenhams in India, due to which they have failed to garner enough footfalls for the brand. A combination of steep price points and wrong location has caused Arvind to shut down stores of Debenhams in the country.
Arvind Lifestyle Brands had acquired Debenhams, along with Next and Nautica, from Ramesh Tainwala’s Planet Retail 2012. Planet Retail had first brought Debenhams into the country in 2007.
While acquiring Debenhams in 2012, Arvind had planned to increase the number of stores from the then two to eight over a span of three years, but did not manage to do so and has shut down the existing stores as well.
Next currently has two stores in the country and has not expanded to 12 stores as planned in 2012.
Arvind had acquired Debenhams in 2012 as it gave them an entry into the luxury departmental store segment.
Experts say the presence of multi-brand retail chains like Shoppers Stop, Lifestyle and Westside, which have already made their mark in the country, made it difficult for Debenhams to capture a customer base.
“There are well-established major players like Shoppers Stop and Lifestyle, which are already present in large departmental store format and have a dedicated customer base. Debenhams did not manage to capture a dedicated customer base due to stiff competition from the incumbents,” said Prashant Agarwal, joint MD at Wazir Advisors, a retail consultancy firm.
Arvind has other international brands in its portfolio, such as GANT, Arrow, Izod, Energie, US Polo Association, Elle, Cheroke, Mossimo, GAP and Geoffrey Beene. Arvind Lifestyle Brands in FY14 reported a revenue of Rs 1811.38 crore against Rs 1337.22 crore in the previous fiscal. The company reported a net loss of Rs 21.48 crore compared to a net loss of Rs 13.09 crore in FY13.
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