Arvind Lifestyle Brands, a unit of Arvind, has acquired British fashion retailers Debenhams and Next?s operations, and American Lifestyle Brand Nautica in India for R55 crore from Planet Retail, marking the company?s foray into the department store and speciality retail segment.
The company, which was associated with only denim till a few years back, expects to invest about R150 crore over the next three years in these three brands. This, the company says, will help it clock in R500 crore in revenue for these brands over the next five years.
?With this move, we have taken a big step towards strengthening our position in the Indian fashion industry. These acquisitions will accelerate our growth and contribute to our vision of achieving sales of R5,000 crore over the next five years,? Sanjay Lalbhai, chairman and managing director, said.
The Gujarat-based retailer expects R3,000 crore sales from organic growth over the next five years.
Lalbhai said the company is in the process of tying up with many international brands, getting into joint ventures that may bring in R2,000 crore or even more, adding that most dialogues are with single-brand retailers abroad. But he refused to divulge any names.
The company plans to add six Debenhams stores over the next three years, from the two stores currently, positioning the brand as a ?bridge-to-luxury store?. It will open nine new Next stores and 30 Nautica store over the next three years.
Arvind Brands currently has 730 retail stores in over 150 towns in India. It also has five outlets in Dubai and two in South Africa. It also runs the value retail chain, Megamart.