NEW DELHI: There could be good news for Esprit logo devotees. Four years after the Hong Kong-based fashion brand exited India amid weak sales, it is looking to open bricks and-mortar stores in the country, according to two people aware of the development. “Yes, Esprit is coming back. The top guys from abroad had come about three weeks ago and they were looking for (mall) space,” one of the persons cited earlier told, requesting not to be identified. The executives had come from Hong Kong,he said.
The second person said Esprit is in talks with online fashion retailer Myntra to open Esprit-branded physical store in the country. Myntra already sells Esprit products online through an exclusive deal signed with the fashion brand late last year. Email queries sent to Esprit and Myntra on the matter remained unanswered till press time.
Myntra entered the physical retailing business earlier this year with the acquisition of the online and brick-and-mortar retailing rights for Spain’s Mango from its existing franchisees—Major Brands and DLF Brands.
In an interview earlier this month, Ananth Narayanan, chief executive of Myntra, had said his company is looking to extend physical retailing and is in talks with two more foreign brands for a master franchisee deal like Mango. He had declined to give more details. Myntra is close to signing up two sub-franchisees to manage Mango stores in India and is likely to appoint Jaipur-based Samarth Lifestyle and New Delhi-based G&B Fashion for the same.
Esprit had entered India in 2005 in a distribution partnership with Aditya Birla Group. However, poor business growth forced the company to shut operations in the country in 2013.
The fashion brand operates in 40 countries through more than 700 retail stores and over 6,000 points of sale, including franchise stores and shop-in-shops in department stores. A rage in the global fashion scene in the 1980s, Esprit faced stiff competition from Spain-based Zara, Sweden’s H&M and Japan’s Uniqlo. Currently, the company is listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and operate out of its headquarters in Germany and Hong Kong.
