Samar Lifestyle eyes Rs 350 Cr turnover from Florsheim biz

Samar Lifestyle, which will sell the Florsheim brand of shoes in India, is eyeing a Rs 350 crore turnover by 2022 through multi brand outlets and Exclusive Brand Outlets, a top company official said.

The agreement between the company, part of the Sara Futura Group and Weyco Group to sell the brand, was formalised between Sara Group Managing Director Kayum Dhanani and Weyco Group CEO Tom Florsheim Jr in January 2018.

"Our idea is the licensing and retailing business.We want to sell around half a million pair of shoes in the next four years. That is our Florsheim target", Sara Group President Mridumesh Kumar Rai told PTI.

He said per capita consumption of footwear in India was set to increase to 4.8 pairs by 2020 from the present 1.8 pairs.

To a query, he said Florsheim's strategy would be led by its distribution network. "Our channel strategy is that business will be coming from multi-brand footwear. We plan to have around 25 EBOs (Exclusive Brand Outlets)", he said.

The company's first outlet in the country (after bagging the licensing deal), set up at an investment of about Rs one crore, was recently inaugurated by Rai and senior company officials at the Palladium Mall in Chennai.

"Some of the shoes you see here are the same that are sold in Australia or some other countries. The women's shoes displayed here are imported from Florsheim globally and you can see similar designs and prices in other countries", he said.

Asked why the company chose Chennai to open its first store, he said "We believe that Florsheim already has a big clientele in the city.

However, we have a second store coming up in New Delhi. By January, it will be up and running", he said.

Rai said the plan was to have 1,000 Points of Sale for Florsheim across channels in the country by 2022.

"My guess is that there will be a healthy mix of brand outlets... anything between 15-25 in three to four years", he said.

Noting that a survey had stated that the branded footwear market penetration in India was about 42 per cent, he said a lot of it was being sold through multi-brand outlets.

To a query, he said the size of the footwear industry in India was pegged at around Rs 60,000 crore and projected to grow at a CAGR of 18 per cent Year-on-Year.

He said the company's factory near Ambur-Ranipet area in Tamil Nadu produces 11,000 pairs of footwear every day.

"If you look at that, we are doing close to 40 lakh pairs a year", he said.