Manchester United: Setting new standards in sportswear

Premium lifestyle sportswear brand Manchester United (Man Utd) is now available to its huge fan base in India through Indus-League Clothing. “Moving forward, we will focus a lot more on lifestyle products and accessories.

Man Utd is all about experiencing the greatness and glory of the brand. Though apparels will have a major contribution but the energy and excitement of the brand would be represented by a variety of lifestyle products and accessories,” explains Rachna Aggarwal, Chief Executive Officer, Indus-League Clothing.

Manchester United, one of the oldest English football club was formed in 1878. It has a glorious 130 years of history and heritage behind it. The club has always signed popular world class players with a huge fan following. This in turn has made the club immensely popular among both football playing and non playing countries. For ardent fans of Man Utd is no less than a religion. The brand essence of Man Utd is glory and greatness and the essence has to be communicated through fan experiences, products and services.

Elaborating on their India strategy, Aggarwal says, “It has been 15 months since MUML and Indus-League signed a license agreement for developing and retailing official Man Utd merchandise. We have tried to bring in the glory and greatness of Man Utd in India which will wow its fan base. The Indian fans see this brand as a premium lifestyle sports brand and they wear it with pride. The brand offers complete lifestyle offering of apparels, accessories, home linen and sports accessories in India. Until now the fans used to order the merchandise online, but with our merchandise offering the fans can experience the lifestyle offering upclose.”

In a short span of time, the brand has established foothold among the Indian audiences. The Manchester United store at palladium, Mumbai won VMRD award for best store design and the brand was also nominated for the most exciting brand launch of the year at IFF 2012. “The fan base is increasing as the viewership of football is increasing. At present Man Utd has 20 million fans in India and its only growing. Aggarwal says, by 2020 Man Utd will be the benchmark in premium sportswear apparels in India. “With its immense fan base worldwide and in India, we would be capitalize on the potential and make the club popular nationwide. At present, the club’s popularity is limited to major metros, our aim would be to make Man Utd popular in Tier II cities across India,” she adds.

Currently Man Utd has six EBOs in major metros of Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi, Bangalore and Pune. In terms of shop-in-shops, Man Utd is present in 32 Planet Sports, 21 Pantaloons and seven Centrals nationwide. The merchandise is also available on e-commerce platforms like Myntra, Jabong, Yebhi and Fashionara. “The big plus of e-retailing is that the reach of internet is vast and only getting better.This would allow Man Utd products to reach Tier II, III cities,” sums up Aggarwal.