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The 95-year old company had been sourcing from India for more than two decades but entered as a retail brand a year ago by forming a subsidiary. Recently, it started opening retail stores, and now has three outlets in India.
“India is one of the booming markets for the next 10-15 years. It has a young population. They are open, they like fashion. So that’s why we decided to become a strong brand, not only by sourcing,” Mueller told ET.
India accounts for 75-80% of the company’s sourcing, which it plans to increase further and reduce its dependency on China.
The company is ready to increase investment in India, if needed.
“This depends on what is needed in the end. We are a family-owned company and we are bank independent. So whatever is needed as investment we can do, but this depends also on the market developments, market today in Europe, at least, is a little bit shaky. We have inflation problems, we have Ukraine problems there and (it is) difficult to plan, but still we are growing in double digits,” said Mueller.Europe is currently the biggest market for AstorMueller, but it believes India will become the number one in the next five years. “The potential is there, the power to invest is there, so it’s a strategic decision that we took. It’s not that we jumped to every opportunity, we really took time to understand the market,” Mueller said.
The company has an international design team and development centres across Switzerland, Germany, Italy and India.
Indian footwear purchases in value terms are expected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15-17% between 2021-22 and 2024-25. The average sale price of footwear is expected to increase at a CAGR of 5-7% during this period, according to Metro Brands’ annual report.
AstorMueller plans to introduce more brands to India in near future.
“We are a platform so we are able to take other brands onto our platform, but for the moment we will focus on these two brands (Bugatti and Bagatt),” said Mueller. “But there might come up some other things in the next 12 to 24 months. We are discussing one brand for India, ready to launch in India and we are negotiating one brand that we would launch in Europe and then bring to India.”
India is the second largest producer and consumer of footwear in the world. It is a high employment generating sector, which contributes significantly to the country’s export earnings and economic growth.
Mueller said India is unlikely to be impacted by the global slowdown. “India will not be affected, the power within the countries is too strong and is too big,” he said.
The company plans to open stores in Hyderabad, Chennai and Mumbai.
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