Mephisto to set foot in India

Mephisto, a France-based manufacturer of men’s and women’s sport and leisure footwear, is in the process of entering the Indian footwear market within two months, according to the euro 400-million (approximately Rs 2,900 crore) company’s secretary-general, Rolf Konrad.

“We are scouting for an exclusive distributor for the Indian subcontinent. Hopefully, we should find this month, and set our foot in the region by April this year,” he told Business Standard on the sidelines of the 14th World Congress of International Society of Prosthetics and Orthotics (ISPO) 2013, which kicked-off here on Monday.

The almost five-decade-old, family-run company manufactures 20,000 pairs of shoes and sandals per day across 600 different models under the Mephisto, Sano, Mobils and Allrounder brands, at its facility in France.

The company has subsidiaries in the US, Canada, Japan and Portugal, and finds buyers through an inter-cultural marketing strategy in 86 countries with an export rate of 85 per cent. Konrad said Mephisto had drawn a 20-year strategy for the region, including a manufacturing plant in a couple of years.