Saks Fifth Avenue may enter India

US-based high-end retailer Saks Fifth Avenue’s have set their eyes on India entry. The buzz is that senior

officials met realty developers, consultants, retailers in Delhi and Mumbai indicating its keen interest in becoming a part of India’s luxury market.

If it formally announces its India plans, the New York-based retailer of high-end apparels, shoes and handbags, beauty products, jewellery and other accessories would be one of the first multi-brand retailers of luxury products to explore the Indian market. The government opened the multi brand retail sector to overseas store chains in August 2012 by permitting 49 percent foreign direct investment (FDI) in supermarkets and department stores and 100 percent in single-brand retail.

Sources claim that the Saks team met senior officials from Aditya Birla Group, which runs a high-end multi-brand department store, The Collective, and has brands like Allen Solly and Van Heusen under Madura Fashion & Lifestyle, part of the group. Earlier, in 2005, a similar delegation had visited the country to explore possibilities.

As per the March 2013 survey by Bain and Co, India’s luxury goods market is growing at over double the pace of the global luxury market. The Indian luxury sector is estimated to be close to 6 billion dollars (over Rs 36,000 crores) a year and growing at 15-20 percent a year.