Lotto eyes smaller towns for growth

Italian sportswear brand, Lotto Sport Italia, plans to focus on Tier-II and Tier-III cities in India for further growth. The company plans to have about 15 exclusive stores in the country by March 2007, from six at present. A significant chunk of these would be in the smaller towns and cities.

"Tier-II and Tier-III cities contribute about 40 per cent to our revenues in India and we expect better growth in these sectors. This is because Lotto is considered as an international yet affordable brand. There is fierce competition in metros. Our company's strategy is, therefore, to concentrate on smaller towns and cities while not ignoring the Tier-I cities," Gurdeep Singh, senior marketing manager for Lotto in India, said.

At present, Lotto has set up exclusive stores in Delhi, Noida, Patna, Visakhapatnam, Bhubaneswar and Guwahati. The company plans to expand to cities like Shillong, Lucknow and Kochi apart from Bangalore and Chennai.

"Each store would be of an average size of 600 square feet. It would take an investment of Rs 6 lakh for interiors and house Rs 10 lakh-Rs 15 lakh worth of stock," according to KVS Unni, head of Lotto in India. Sierra Industrial Enterprises Private Limited is the licensee for Lotto in the country.

Unni declined to divulge the revenues of the company in India but said that they were registering a year-on-year growth of 30 per cent and expect to grow this year by 35 per cent.

Meanwhile, Lotto has announced the launch of its Fall Winter '06 Sania Signature Collection, which includes T-shirts, sweatshirts, jackets and capris besides accessories like caps and bags dedicated to tennis player Sania Mirza.

The products are priced between Rs 249 and Rs 1,699. The company had earlier launched Sania's spring-summer signature collection. Sania has been sponsored by Lotto since 2005.