Puma expects womenswear category to contribute 30% to total sales

By

Maverick Martins

Published
Sep 6, 2017

German sportswear giant Puma is focusing on the womenswear market in India to drive its next phase of growth and expects the segment to generate 30% business, up from the current 28%, by next year, said a top company official.
 

Puma India reported a meager loss of Rs 3.6 crore in the last fiscal which the company attributed to its drop in online sales. It reported sales of Rs 921.2 crore (approx $143.8 milion) in the last financial year.

Despite the losses, Puma India remained the leading player in the fragmented sportswear category in 2016 with a retail value share of 4%, followed by Adidas India and Nike India with a share of 3% each; according to a report by research firm Euromonitor.

Puma had signed up Indian cricket skipper Virat Kohli as brand ambassador for Rs 100 crore (approx $15.7 million) giving it an edge over its rivals in the menswear segment. The company is now looking to focus at the womenswear segment and this category is expected to account for nearly a third of its sales soon.
 
“We see good growth in the womenswear category. We expect the segment to cross 30 per cent of our business by next year,” Abhishek Ganguly, Managing Director, Puma India told BusinessLine.
 
The womenswear segment contributes 28 percent to the overall sales and to raise the percentage further Puma is planning to open stores that will cater to women exclusively across the country.
 
Puma is also looking to cash in on the booming sportswear and athleisure market in India by giving its apparel segment a push eyeing a 20 percent increase in the same this fiscal. As of now footwear generates almost half of the company’s revenue with apparel adding 35 percent to the same.

According to Ganguly, one of the reasons why the sportswear maker has been successful in the country is because of its cautious store expansion and the focus on tier-II towns.
 
“Our expansion into smaller cities has yielded results. Hence, we are looking at alternatives not just in metros but also in tier-II and sometimes tier-III cities,” Ganguly added.
 
Puma has 360 stores across the country. The company is currently in the process of building up its website to sell directly to customers in India and has made investments in technology worth Rs 120 crore (approx $18.8 million).
 
Puma India last year had got the government nod for a 100% single-brand entity in India, for a wide range of retail options, including e-commerce.