West Coast partners with Metro shoes for India expansion

By

Maverick Martins

Published
Sep 6, 2017

Brazilian shoemaker Grupo Priority has partnered with India’s leading footwear retailer Metro Shoes Ltd to expand the brand’s presence in the country. The brand is currently available in 122 department stores.

Metmill Footwear Pvt Ltd, a unit of Metro Shoes Ltd will help the brand set up physical stores across the country and also take West Coast online. The company is in talks with top online retailers like Myntra and Jabong for the same.
 
Metro Shoes has performed reasonably well in the online market achieving online sales of Rs 13 crore (approx $2.1 million) in 2016-2017. Online marketplaces including Myntra, Flipkart and Amazon collectively contributed 85 per cent of the sales whereas its own portal contributed 15 per cent of the sales.

In the financial year 2016-2017, Metro Shoes achieved sales revenue of Rs1030 crore (approx $160.7million).
 
West Coast was founded by family-run Grupo Priority in 1987 as a flip-flop brand in Brazil is focusing on India’s premium casual wear segment and will compete with international brands like Aldo, Steve Madden etc.
 
“We are aiming to be in 150 stores by the end of this (calendar) year, but we will consider standalone retail stores only perhaps after three years,” said Nirav Shah, CEO of Metmill Footwear told the Mint.

“When we did the research, (we saw) there is a space for a pure casual shoe market in India,” said Silton Freire, export manager at Grupo Priority.

West Coast shoes are primarily leather shoes with some canvas ones as well, and include flip-flops, slip-ons and lace shoes for men. The products start at Rs2, 000-3,000 for the flip flops and at Rs4, 000-6,500 for shoes.
 
Metro shoes currently operates around 360 stores across India and also has a retail partnership agreement with global footwear giant Crocs in India.