|
Tuesday, 19 July 2011 |
Zara or Arcadia? Trent the retail arm of Tatas has
decided in favor of Zara for now. Trent had entered into a franchisee agreement with UK’s Arcadia Group three years ago and was planning to open at least 15 stores of Arcadia’s Topman and Topshop brands. But since then it has had a change of plan and decided to promote the Spanish fashion retailer. Zara, one of the largest international fashion companies, belongs to Inditex, one of the world’s largest distribution groups. Since February 2009, Trent has opened two Zara stores in Delhi (Select City Walk and DLF Premonade) and one in Mumbai (Palladium). These are reported to be doing very well.
Zara has been a hot favorite among Indian shoppers because it offers trendy styles. The day it opened a South Delhi outlet the store recorded the largest single-day sale by an international retailer in the country. After building up the Zara network, Trent is keen on looking again at Arcadia. The Arcadia Group is UK’s largest privately owned clothing retailer with more than 2,500 outlets. Among its fashion brands are Burton, Dorothy Perkins, Evans, Miss Selfridge, Topman, Topshop and Wallis. It operates in 30 countries across Europe, Southeast Asia and Central Asia through 420 international franchise stores. Besides, Trent is also likely to end franchisee arrangement with Benetton Group’s Sisley brand, with which it had signed an agreement four years ago. Trent was unable to expand the number of stores as expected. |
