Clarks and Future Group plan a Joint Venture

Leading UK shoe retailer, Clarks, has agreed to enter into a joint venture with the Future Group to retail footwear in India. Kishore Biyani led Future Group is one of India’s largest retailers, running supermarket chains like Big Bazaar, Central, Pantaloon. With such a JV, the Future Group will now offer lifestyle footwear to Indian customers. Consumers will have to wait till 2011 when the JV launches Clarks in India through standalone stores as well as shop-in-shop in larger retail store. The iconic brand, which started in 1825 in the Somerset village of Street, UK, sells more than 40 million pairs of shoes in over 50 countries through its own and franchised stores as well as multi-brand outlets. The retailer offers a range of footwear; boots, casual, sports, slippers, for men, women and kids. Future is banking heavily on the experience and design capability of $2-billion UK shoe retailer, which sells over 1,000 different styles of footwear. Winner Sports, a subsidiary of the Future Group’s listed firm, Pantaloon Retail, will form JV with Clarks. Winner Sports, which already runs a multi-brand sports speciality chain Planet Sports, is the exclusive India licensee for retailing and marketing several international brands, including Converse, Speedo, Wilson and Callaway. It runs 57 stores across 23 locations. Also, planning on increasing its expenditure on fashion and lifestyle ventures, the Future Group’s Pantaloon Retail India has booked a total of 22 million sq. ft of retail space and plans to make three million sq. ft operational every year over the next three to four years. It has a capital expenditure plan of Rs 700-crore this fiscal and plans to open 14 Pantaloon stores and six Central malls across eight key consumption centres.