Sportwear with a touch of lifestyle

FILA has been in the Indian market for three years now. Despite the economy slowing down and with plans to hike the price, FILA is confident to grow and expand in the youth dominated Indian market. Rajiv Bajaj, CEO, FILA India shares more about the company’s plan with Ankur Gaurav. 

Ankur Gaurav (AG): AG: How do you see the Indian sportswear market in India?

Rajiv Bajaj (RB): We deal in sports wear market and it is around Rs 3,000-4,000 crore in India. We are not worried of the fact that Reebok and Adidas share more than 50 per cent market in India. We have been growing with the desired pace. India is a young country and our TG is in large numbers so there is plenty of opportunity yet to be tapped.

AG: What is the percentage of the total revenue that you spend on marketing and advertising?

RB: FILA India spends six-eight per cent of the company’s revenue on marketing and advertising. We have been present in India for the past three years and after making its physical presence and enriching the product range, we thought the time is right to give the brand a face, Virender Sehwag.

AG: How big is FILA India in terms of store count and revenues?

RB: At the retail level, we would be a brand of about 150 crore. Out of which 70 per cent is footwear and 30 per cent is apparels.  By retail level we mean, how much a customer has to pay for the products. Revenue registered by FILA India in the last fiscal year was just below Rs 100 crore, whereas FILA is around 2 billion dollars worldwide. In terms of store count, at present we have 35 exclusive stores out of which 10 are company owned and the rest are franchised. We are also present in around 1,800 locations pan India through multi brand outlets.

AG: What are your expansion plans for the coming years?

RB: This year we will be opening another 25-30 stores. The location of these stores would be metros and the mini metros. Primarily these will be franchisee owned stores.

AG: What is the brand’s USP?

RB: Our USP is that we are a sports brand with a lot of lifestyle. It is a wonderful blend of sports and lifestyle.

AG: What is the growth that you have been registering and what is the target for the future?

RB: Branded sportswear segment is growing at around 20 per cent per annum in India. And we should be growing at around 30-35 per cent. This difference in growth rate of the industry and FILA will make sure we increase our market presence in the coming years.

AG: Indian economy has been on a slowdown, and Rupee has seen depreciation in the recent times. Does it have any impact on your business?

RB: Economy slow down and rupee depreciation definitely has an impact on our business but that is a part of the whole business. Winter season market starts in August and to negate the rupee depreciation we are planning to increase the prices by around five per cent. This price hike will reflect in both footwear and apparels segment.

AG: How are you planning to make Virendra Sehwag the face of FILA?

RB: We are planning to launch him in TVCs, Print Ads, and online Ads which will feature him. The TVCs would come in this calendar year.

AG: How will you make sure FILA will get enough visibility in the field?

RB: He will be wearing spikes and we will get enough visibility with that on the cricket field as well. We will make people look at it; there are ways to do it.

AG: What is the correlation of Virendra Sehwag and FILA?

RB: FILA is a over 100 years old sports brand, which is among the oldest in the world. Association with a great sportsman is a great fit. And among many greats, we think he is the most relevant. His popularity and fan following is big and we hope he does a lot of good to the brand.

AG: How do you see the brand growing in the coming years?

RB: Our plan for the future is bigger presence, brand building through exclusive stores and through brand ambassadors. We will increase our presence to around 2,500 locations and are also planning to open another 25 exclusive stores by the end of this fiscal year.