As has been in the news earlier that Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Limited (ABFRL) was trying to acquire the rights for American fast-fashion brand Forever 21. The same has been finally confirmed that Aditya Birla is acquiring the online and offline rights of Forever 21 in the Indian market. This marks the third time for the US fashion brand that it is changing its India partner.
Aditya Birla Fashion in a reporting statement has informed that the Board of Directors of ABFRL has in-principally approved a proposal to enter into a Binding Memorandum of Understanding with Forever 21 to acquire its exclusive online and offline rights to the global brand – Forever 21, for the Indian market and its existing store network in India from the current franchisee.
Currently a joint venture between DLF Brands and the US company operate 10 brick-and-mortar and the company sells online through fashion portal Myntra. It is btunclear what happens to the Myntra online partnership once Aditya Birla Fashion sings deal with Forever 21 that involves both offline and online rights for India, while Myntra was also a contender who tried hard to snatch the right duties from the other contenders and take the local guardianship of the American brand.
Forever 21, a fashion brand targeted at teens and young adults had entered India half a decade ago and has changed a partner already before tying up with DLF Brands. If reports are to be believed then the DLF Brands-Forever 21 JV was certainly not a fruitful tie up as the same did not result into a scale up of business for the brand unlike its global rival Zara. We can only hope that the new JV will bring about a change in the Forever 21 brand and it will scale up in India for better.
