Hilfiger to increase stores

Around 500 Tommy Hilfiger accessories retail outlets will be set up in India in the next five years.

The brand is sold in India through franchisee Murjani Group. The rising affluence sweeping across the metros and other towns has prompted this decision. According to consultant McKinsey & Co increasing incomes, urbanization and awareness about western brands is helping Tommy Hilfiger and other western brands to boost sales in a nation where revenue from selling apparel is predicted to more than double to as much as $55 billion in 2015. This will happen as Indians spend the most on buying clothes after food, with apparel accounting for about 10 percent of total retail sales in India.

Tommy Hilfiger’s first Indian retail outlet was opened in Mumbai in 2004. Mohan Murjani, Chairman of the Mumbai-based Murjani Group says apart from the 500 accessories stores that will sell belts, watches, wallets and stationery they will also double the number of outlets selling Tommy Hilfiger apparels to 2,000 in the next five years. Currently, Tommy Hilfiger is available through a 1,000 stores across 98 cities in India.

The Murjani Group owns the franchise rights to retail Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein and French Connection United Kingdom (FCUK) brands in India. This well-known company set up its first apparel store in 1930 in Shanghai and today its Indian holdings include a luxury mall in Mumbai. In the meantime, in March this year, the New York-based apparel conglomerate Phillips-Van Heusen Corporation decide to acquire the Hilfiger brand from the private equity firm Apax Partners LP, for approximately $3 billion.