Brazil’s Grupo Priority ties up with Metro Shoes for India foray

Brazilian shoe-maker Grupo Priority has brought its flagship men’s shoe brand West Coast to India through a distribution tie-up with Metro Shoes. The brand was soft-launched in May and is available in 122 department stores including the top six metros and Tier II, III cities, says Eduardo Schefer, Director of Operations, Grupo Priority.

They have tied up with Metmill Footwear a unit of Metro Shoes, a shoe retail chain and private label. The brand has set up shop-in-shops exclusive spaces in multi-brand retail store dedicated to a single brand in retail stores. Paulo Schefer, Founder of Grupo Priority and West Coast shoes says the casual Friday was very strong in Brazil, where people looked for shoes they could wear to work and head straight out into happy hour with their friends.

Existing premium brands in India’s shoe market have also been looking to cater to the premium casual segment in India. In January this year, Crocs India stated it will rely on casual footwear for its next phase of growth with a range priced between Rs 1,500 and Rs 7,000. According to Euromonitor, India’s footwear market is worth Rs 55,300 crore and grew 16 per cent in 2016. The market is dominated by Bata India which has a 5 per cent share by sales value. The market is expected to grow at CAGR of 7 per cent to reach Rs 77,800 crore by 2021.