Lotto betting big on India

Lotto the Italian sports and lifestyle brand is planning to spread out in India with Lotto monobrand stores. In India, Sports Lifestyle Pvt Ltd (SLPL) has the license to sell Lotto products. “Lotto product lines have an excellent acceptance in the Indian market, be it footwear or apparels.

Infact, the apparel collection has become a rage among youngsters,” says Lalit Kishore, MD, SLPL. Lotto was brought to India in 2007. Kishore says within the short span of its existence in the Indian market, SLPL has managed to create dominance in its category by revolutionizing the traditional sandals and slippers. This season, for the first time, SLPL launched an exclusive Italian collection ‘Calcetto’ and the company foresees a similar success in this category. The Calcetto collection is a convergence of the technology unique to the sport of Calcetto and Italian designing. Calcetto is one of the most popular European sports and Lotto has a rich heritage of association with this game.

At the moment, Lotto has more than 20 exclusive brand outlets and 100 plus shop in shops in MBO’s like Shoppers stop, Reliance Footprints, Spencer’s Retail, Central, Pantaloons, Planet Sports, Chun Mun, Ritu Wears, and Standard Max. Apart from this it also has a strong distribution network that caters to a large number of other MBO’s. “We have plans to expand our retail presence in India. In the first phase, we are looking at opening 50 stores by the end of 2010,” Kishore says. In all the brand is looking at opening 300 stores in the next five years. “While we are currently focusing on strengthening our presence in North, we are also planning to cover the top metros and Tier II cities soon,” says Kishore. The new outlets would be coming up mostly in Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan in the first phase followed by Maharashtra and Gujarat in the next. In addition to retail stores, the brand recently launched an e-store through which customers can buy Lotto products online. It’s is also planning to foray into innerwear category soon.

Kishore says having built the core product line for the Indian market and establishing a widespread distribution network, the brand has now tasted success. “Now we plan to aggressively expand our distribution network and open Lotto monobrand stores pan-India,” he explains. With a turnover of Rs 30 crore last year SLPL is aiming for a 40-50 per cent growth next year.