Lotto game for a big innings in India

Sportswear brand Lotto in association with Finproject, is offering Indian consumers a range of exclusive summer slippers. The new collection has a feature XL Extralight that is a closed-cell foam material with extraordinary properties developed by

Finproject in its laboratories, expressly for its top brands. XL Water for men and Kelly for women are exclusive Lotto products made in this specialized XL Extralight material. Both the extra light material and the gel used in these products are made in Italy. The extra light material renders the products light, strong, flexible, waterproof, abrasion-resistant, eco-friendly and extremely comfortable. The new line is being retailed through Lotto EBOs and select MBOs pan-India.

The brand is always striving to create quality products and on the lookout for new ways of doing things. Believing that cricket is the best way to connect with Indian consumers, Lotto is now is associated with the IPL Kochi Team. “Soon we will have a cricket equipment range in the Indian market. India will be the first market globally that will see the launch of this new product line. We would be manufacturing a representative line across footwear, apparel and accessories in cricket category and these would hit the stores in six months,” Lalit Kishore, Managing Director, Sports Lifestyle says.

In India, Lotto has been licensed through Sports Lifestyle since July 2007. The brand targets sports enthusiasts and lifestyle consumers aged between 14 to 35 years. Kishore says, “Our collection has been designed keeping in mind the needs of discerning value-oriented consumers in India and at the same time we offer Italian excellence in design to provide today’s young with the latest trends in sportswear.” Lotto has also made a significant presence online through its e-commerce portal where customers can buy Lotto footwear online. “Apart from this we have a lot of affiliate portals selling Lotto merchandize online which has been getting a tremendous response and we are doing great numbers,” says Kishore.

The brand has 50 exclusive outlets and 150 plus shop-in-shops in India with a presence in all big large formats like Shoppers Stop, Reliance Footprints, Spencer’s, Central, Pantaloons, Planet Sports, Chunmun, Ritu Wears, Standard Max. Lotto is also at a large number of MBOs, where it hopes to increase its presence in the future. The brand is planning to double its stores each year for the next two years. Kishore says they would mainly focus in the north and west. “The target cities are: Delhi and NCR, Meerut, Pune, Maharashtra, Raipur, Nagpur, Mumbai, Dehradun, Jaipur , Lucknow, Baroda, Surat etc.”

With a turnover of Rs 58 crores, and growing at a 20 to 25 per cent year-on-year, Lotto, in the last two years, has tasted immense success. “We plan to aggressively expand our distribution network, our presence in all the key accounts and national chains and also open Lotto monobrand stores pan-India,” sums up Kishore. “We strongly believe that the ever-growing sports and lifestyle market in India offers huge potential for a brand like Lotto. Also, with the Indian middle class becoming more aspirational the opportunities for us are multifold.”