Puma puts best foot forward in infant wear, smart watches segments

Opens its biggest India store in Bengaluru to give an experiential taste to buyers

Sportswear brand Puma India is on a diversification spree and will be venturing into the infant wear segment by the end of this year, said a top company official. It will also be launching its first smart watches by next month.

The company will start selling joggers sets and jackets for babies, priced between Rs 2,500-3,500. It will be launching a wider collection including t-shirts, shorts, rompers and body suits by early next year and expects a 30 per cent year on year growth in infant wear.

“We are in the process of setting up shop-in-shops in kids stores for this collection. Our kids section, ranging from 4-14 years, has also seen a huge traction and has grown 50 per cent since last year,” said Abhishek Ganguly, managing director, Puma India.

The kids range already forms seven per cent of the company’s total India business, which posted a total revenue of Rs 1,156 crore for FY18, according to industry data. While the women’s collection accounts for 30 per cent of total Puma India’s sales, men’s range account for the rest. It hopes the kids and women’s collection will form 50 per cent of its total business soon in the near future.

The Germany-headquartered company has partnered with the Fossil Group for its new luxury smart watches collection. Powered by Qualcomm, these wearables will be available at a price range between Rs 20,000-25,000. “We are in the business of sports and fitness, so smart watches is a natural extension,” said Ganguly. These watches will have a heart rate tracker, GPS tracker, Google assistant, Google Pay and training apps for workouts. They will be waterproof and available in three colours.

The company has also launched its biggest store in India in Bengaluru which will also function as an experience zone for its products. This is said to be the second such experience centre globally after its massive New York store that was launched in this August.

The two-floored store, spanning over 7,500 square feet has embroidery and printing machines to personalise apparel, footwear and merchandise at a price of Rs 199-599 within five minutes. It has also installed two F1 simulators to attract customers apart from interactive aisles for buyers to choose products which are currently not available at the store but could be home delivered directly from the warehouse later.

The company continues to add more stores to its offering of 360 outlets across 130 cities at a time when competitors such as Nike are consolidating their India business. According to reports, Nike was in the process of cutting down the number of its stores to 150 in India to focus on global cities such as New York, London and Paris.

Puma India is steady on the path of opening 30 new stores this year alone. “We do not do mindless expansions and we are bullish. Our intention had never been to open 1,000 stores in India in five years. We open stores with a strong understanding of the catchment,” added Ganguly.