Lacoste to open around 50 stores in India in coming five years

French premium apparel brand Lacoste plans to open around 50 stores in India in the coming five years and enter new cities. The business sees a significant growth opportunity in the Indian retail market and also plans to expand its online presence.

“India is one of the fastest emerging and interesting markets,” Lacoste’s Asia Pacific CEO Marcus Meyer told India Retailing in an interview during his first visit to India. “We have 53 points-of-sale including seven digital marketplaces already in India.  The points-of-sale include our boutiques along with premium online marketplaces… At the moment, we are in 17 cities in India and the target that we defined together with our partner is to go to approximately 29-30 cities in India.”
 
The business is also keen to expand the size of its stores to enable them to house more products. The average store size is currently around 100 square metres and Lacoste plans to extend many of its current stores to and open new stores at around 140 to 150 square metres.  

As well as bolstering its brick-and-mortar presence, Lacoste plans to widen its online reach, according to Meyer. The brand currently works with six multi-brand e-commerce marketplaces in India and has to potential to be listed on between eight to 10 marketplaces. However, the label is keen to choose online platforms discernibly to ensure that the focus is on fashion.  
 
Lacoste has retailed in India since 1993 and runs a direct to customer e-commerce store dedicated to the Indian market. The brand is known for its crocodile logo polo shirts.