Asics plans to expand retail footprint in India

By

Maverick Martins

Published
Feb 21, 2020

Japan-based sportswear company Asics is looking to aggressively expand its retail footprint across the country and has planned 15 new stores this year.
 

Despite the slowdown, the company continues to remain bullish in India and also exploring opening company-owned stores under the foreign direct investment (FDI) policy for single-brand retail.
 
Apart from its retail expansion, Asics is also looking to strengthen its online presence by widening its customer base in tier 2, 3 cities that contribute the most to its online sales.

“We plan to open 14-15 new stores in 2020 across metros, tier-1, and tier-2 markets. Nearly 14-15 percent of our sales come from the e-commerce platforms and an additional 4-5 percent of the sales come from our own website with consumers in tier 2 and tier 3 markets contributing significantly to online sales,” Rajat Khurana managing director of Asics India and South Asia, told BusinessLine.
 
“In line with the government’s push towards Make in India, we have been ramping up local sourcing, and currently, it is pegged at about 15-20 percent. In addition, we intend to ramp up local sourcing to be able to open our own stores through the single-brand retail route in the long term,” Khurana added.
 
Asics considers India as an important market for growth and also has a strong online presence including its exclusive website for the country. The brand currently has 43 stores across the country.