Bebe an American women fashion brand enters India, Myntra gets the master distribution rights.

 

The San Francisco-based fashion marquee brand will cater to the mass premium segment and is set to offer an extensive range of apparel across categories for women in India, particularly targeting the urban and fashion forward group, spread across the country's metros and tier 1 cities.

As part of the licensing agreement, Myntra will assist bebe with wholesale distribution through a network of independent third-party franchise partners and distributors.

 

Flipkart group firm Myntra Jabong has been granted the master distribution and management rights for US-based women's fashion brand 'bebe', according to a statement.

''This association will eventually help bebe to establish a customer base in India,'' said Manohar Kamath, CXO and Chief - House of Brands, Flipkart Group.

Myntra to sub-franchise Mango stores in India

Myntra.com, the country’s largest online fashion retailer, is close to signing up two sub-franchisees to manage Mango stores in India, according to three people familiar with the matter. 

Myntra, which took over the offline and online franchisee rights for the Spanish fashion and lifestyle brand in India earlier this year, is likely to appoint Samarth Lifestyle and G&B Fashion as the subfranchisees. 

Jaipur-based Samarth operates more than 100 outlets of Benetton, Tommy Hilfiger, US Polo, Puma, Lee, Wrangler and Calvin Klein, while New Delhi-based G&B operates 25 outlets of Benetton in the National Capital Region. 

Samarth Lifestyle and G&B declined to comment on the possible deals with Mango. Myntra has decided not to run the Mango stores itself, at least in the initial stages, due to high capital expenditure, operational costs and the need to maintain a separate team for offline stores, the people said. 

“We have not inherited any stores from the earlier franchisees as we did not find a feasible way to work with them,” a Myntra spokesperson said in an e-mailed response. 

“We will be setting up new Mango stores in prime locations in all metros and are working with our franchisees and malls to determine the location of these new stores.” 

Mango’s former franchisee Major Brands has already given notice to vacate a prominent mall in New Delhi. The mall operator hasn’t decided whether to lease the premises to Mango. 

One person said Myntra’s decision to let franchisees operate the Mango stores stems from the fact that its own entry into brick-and mortar retail a month ago with a Roadster-branded store has so far received a lukewarm response in Bengaluru, which the company said wasn’t correct. 

“This is absolutely baseless. While the Roadster store has been launched to create experiences for customers, it has been very well received and has performed beyond our expectations,” Myntra said in an emailed statement. 

“We have seen over 4,500 footfalls in the first month itself which is 2X of the footfalls of other leading brands on the street, with 60 per cent of the shoppers being new customer acquisitions.” On the other hand, Myntra, which was acquired by Flipkart in 2014, said sales of Mango products have surged 25 per cent on its platform since it signed on the Spanish fashion and lifestyle brand in February. 

“We are using a hybrid model of retail and sub-franchisees where all the investments in the store will be borne by us and the day-today operations of the store will be managed by the subfranchisees,” the company spokesperson said in the email. “In phase two of the launch, Myntra will operate and manage a few Mango stores end-to-end.”

Myntra to take over Forever 21 via franchise model

Myntra, an online fashion store owned by flipkart is in advanced talks to manage the local retail chain of Forever 21, the US fashion brand targeted at teens and young adults, reported Economic Times.

The Indian company already sells Forever 21's products online in India under an exclusive tie-up. A deal to take over the 10 brick-and-mortar stores currently managed by a joint venture of Forever 21 and DLF Brands will mark Myntra's entry into offline retailing, a global trend among e-commerce firms. With such moves, e-commerce firms try to de-risk their business from online-only focus.

In 2011, Forever 21 entered India through a franchise route with Dubai-based Sharaf retail and the business failed to scale up for two years, prompting the Dubai company to close the lone store in New Delhi in early 2013.

While Zara's annual revenue was about Rs 720 crore in the fiscal year ended March 2015, at Forever 21, a person aware of the matter said, it was around Rs 250 crore.

However, Timmy Sarna, managing director of DLF Brands, said: "The Forever 21 business is totally in our control". Harminder Sahni, founder of retail consultancy firm Wazir Advisors, said DLF isn't too keen to invest in these businesses anymore and wants to focus only on Mothercare, the British brand with which it has a tie-up in India.

Forever 21 want to exit the joint venture and have a franchise operation in India. The talks are for Myntra to take over the chain, buying out both Forever 21 and DLF Brands. "Handshakes have happened with Myntra and currently the documentation is happening," said one of the people. Valuation details weren't available.

Myntra is exploring the possibilities of opening its branded offline stores as well. It is deliberating whether such outlets should sell products or function as a place where consumers can touch and feel the products. Myntra has been toying with the idea of having its own brick-and-mortar stores in the past as well, but it has now gained momentum, he said.

But Sahni of Wazir Advisors is unsure of its offline success. "It would be a tricky one for Myntra as they are trying to open exclusive stores for other brands while you have no experience of running stores, because running physical stores requires different skill sets," he said.