Reliance Retail brings American fashion label Gap to India with a long-term franchise agreement. This strengthens Reliance’s portfolio of international labels that are focussed at catering to the affluent consumers of the country.
Reliance Retail, already sells over 30 global fashion and lifestyle brands in India, which include, Jimmy Choo, Michael Kors, Burberry, and Brooke Brothers.
Exclusive brand stores, multi-brand stores, and online platforms will be used to sell Gap’s products. Gap’s products are already sold on Reliance Retail’s online fashion store, Ajio.
Akhilesh Prasad, CEO, Relaince Retail, Fashion and Lifestyle said, “At Reliance Retail, we pride ourselves [on] bringing the latest and best to our customers.”
Arvind Fashion launched Gap in India in 2014, through a partnership but the agreement was called off in late 2020. This was in the midst of the pandemic, which cut down on footfalls at malls.
Reliance Retail is India’s largest brick-and-mortar retailer, with a network of 12,178 stores and turnover of 1.5 trillion rupees ($19 billion) in the financial year ending March 2021. It made a huge profit of 472.65 billion rupees by selling a 10% stake to investors including Silver Lake Partners, KKR, TPG, and General Atlantic as the retailer competes with rivals such as the Tata Group, Amazon, and Walmart.
Gap’s dela is the latest one by Reliance Retail over the past few years, when it has gone on to bolster its luxury fashion portfolio by claiming stakes in designer labels that include Manish Malhotra, Ritu Kumar, Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla.
