Pavers England to buy out Indian franchise partner Triton Retail

UK-based footwear retailer Pavers England will buy out its franchise partner, Chennai-based Triton Retail, as it gets ready for solo journey in India following government’s approval of its proposal to invest Rs 100 crore in single-brand retail.

The company at present runs 30 stores in different cities in India through Triton Retail. “We will be probably acquiring them. The valuation will depend on whether we acquire them partly or fully. Ideally, we would like to acquire some stake initially and then gradually ramp up,” Pavers England Footprints India CEO and Managing Director Utsav Seth told PTI.

Last week, Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) had approved the company’s FDI proposal and it is looking to expand its point of sales to 500 in the next two years.

As part of the expansion strategy, the company has set a target of opening 120 new exclusive stores apart from increasing the number of shop-in-shops to up to 350 during the same time period.

“Our plans is to have a total of 500 point of sales in two years. We want to take the total number of our exclusive stores to 150 in the next 24 months from the current 30,” Seth said.

Moreover, the company is looking to enhance the number of shop-in-shops that it has in the outlets of multi-brand retailers -Reliance Footprint, Lifestyle, Shoppers Stop and Westside.

“Currently we have 70 shop-in-shops through these four partners. We want to grow it further through them and the target is to have up to 350 in the next 2 years,” Seth said. On the sourcing front, Seth said Pavers England has no issues with the government’s requirement to source up to 30 percent of sales in India.

“Way back in 2008, we invested $5 million at an R&D centre in Tamil Nadu, which is now also serving as a global export hub. We are exporting about half a million pairs of shoes a year,” he said. The facility can produce 7,50,000 pairs of shoes a year and only 10 percent of them are used for domestic sales.

The company is also looking to increase the number of vendors in India. “Currently we have 15 Indian vendors and we are looking to increase the number, more from small and medium enterprises,” he said.

PTI