Madura Fashion & Lifestyle has emerged as a contender to snag the India rights for running physical stores of the American fast-fashion brand Forever 21, three people familiar with the matter said. The talks with Madura come at a time when e-commerce major Myntra has also engaged with the fashion retailer but a deal is yet to be signed.
Forever 21, which directly competes with Zara and Sweden’s H&M, has had an existing partnership with DLF Brands for the past three years, but is now looking for a more aggressive India play. Sources said the Aditya Birla group-owned Madura is pressing for the online rights of Forever 21 which are exclusively held by Myntra at present.
“There may have been some resistance by the Myntra board about taking the offline route. They are not sure running brick-and-mortar stores would be appropriate at this time as it would digress from their online-only strategy,” a person close to the development said. Myntra, which is owned by e-commerce biggie Flipkart, has an exclusive deal with Forever 21 to sell its products online here in India, which was inked last year in December.
Forever 21 currently operates a dozen retail stores here, according to its official website. “Forever 21 has been looking to exit the JV with DLF for a while now. Apart from Madura, a couple of other offline retailers had also been approached before Myntra became the frontrunner,” said a source.
Forever 21 entered India in 2010 through a Middle East-based group Sharaf Retail, but could open just one store in Delhi. In 2013, the Los Angeles-based fashion brand struck a partnership with DLF Brands to open 40-50 stores in five years in India, but the plans hit a roadblock once again. Many foreign retailers, including Sephora, UK’s Debenhams, Next and luxury brands such as Armani have changed their local partners to accelerate growth and expansion in a key growth market like India.
(Source: Times of India )