Myntra to give sub-franchisees a bite of Mango in India

By

Maverick Martins

Published
May 8, 2017

India’s largest online fashion retailer Myntra is in the process of signing up sub-franchisees to manage Mango stores in India, the Economic Times reported citing sources.

Myntra, which owns franchisee rights for the Spanish fashion brand in India, is likely to appoint Samarth Lifestyle and G&B Fashion as the sub franchisees.

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 familiar with the matter told ET.

Ads

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.

 “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,” he added.

“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 sub franchisees,” 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, 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.