Looking to gain momentum and bring back its A-game, fashion e-commerce retailer Myntra is now reportedly acquiring a majority stake in Hrithik Roshan’s active lifestyle brand ‘HRX’. This investment will help the company boost its high-margin private brands business, reports Mint.
While superstar Hrithik Roshan might be the face of the ‘atheleisure’ clothing brand, but the company is back by parent company Exceed Entertainment. It currently sells stylish gym clothes that can be worn both while performing athletic as well as leisurely activities. Myntra hasn’t dispensed the financial deeds of the transaction, but is expected to complete it over the period of next few weeks.
Rajesh Narkar, VP, Myntra Fashion Brands believes that this deal will add an attractive sportswear and lifestyle brand to its private brands arsenal, which already includes big names like Roadster and Dressberry. He further adds that,
Indians are looking to become healthier, more active and want more choice. Leaving aside a few international sports brands, there’s a lack of choice for consumers in sportswear and lifestyle and there’s massive scope to build a large brand in this segment. Buying an equity stake in HRX will align our vision with HRX’s over the long term.
HRX currently sells its clothing products, including accessories like belts, backpacks and wallets online via e-commerce platforms Myntra and its parent Flipkart. The company is now also looking to setup offline stores in India and expand its reach internationally in the coming year.
Private brands make about a third of Myntra’s online fashion business and its been trying to expand it on the back of different lifestyle partners. The company plans to leverage this partnership to bring in sales of Rs.300 crore this financial year, as compared to Rs.100 crore last year. It has also set eyes on a gross sales target of Rs. 5,000 crore for this fiscal year, which amounts to 30 per cent of its entire sales.
We’ve built a strong brand in sports and lifestyle in less than three years. With Myntra’s strength in analytics, data and the online channel and our product vision and strength in building brands, HRX will become a massive brand over the next 3-5 years. With this deal, our strategy and brand vision is completely aligned with Myntra’s.
says Kamal Punwani, CFO, Exceed Entertainment, who owns the rights to HRX alongside Hrithik Roshan.
Offline Stores
Myntra is also putting into play an omni-channel strategy and plans to open its first physical offline store in the next three months, reports ET. This decision is in conjunction with their plan to achieve profitability by next year.
Ananth Narayanan, CEO, Myntra, in a statement said that,
We are exploring omni-channel. We should be able to create a physical store in the next three months. We plan to launch omni-channel with our private brands — Roadster, HRX and All About You.
The company is targeting $1 billion in sales and may open its first store in either Bengaluru or Delhi. It is currently also in the process of exploring prospects of typing up with brands — who can use their stores for services such as returns.
The company has recently been focused on bouncing back from its disastrous experiment of going ‘app-only’ for about six months. It has recently brought its desktop and mobile websites back from the dead, but the mobile app still saw more sales than the former two.
In an attempt to cut down discounts, and introduce new services like ‘Try-And-Buy’, Myntra has also recently received an investment of about $50 million from Flipkart.
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