ASICS to expand offline presence amid pandemic

    Kolkata, Nov 29 (PTI) Japanese sportswear brand ASICS
is thinking differently in this pandemic and has decided to
increase its offline presence in a big way while many other
brands are pruning existing physical presence hit by severe
COVID-19 induced disruptions.
    The global sportswear company well known for its
running shoes, said pandemic is freeing up some prime
commercial spaces and the company was grabbing the opportunity
banking on a long-term strategy.
    Even though in the current fiscal, e-commerce and
online sales will account to over one-third of its revenue.
    ASICS was optimistic on the Indian market as Covid had
triggered consumers increasingly becoming more conscious about
health and fitness and including running to maintain and boost
their immunity.
    "While a lot of brands are rescinding their plans of
opening stores and even shutting down existing stores, we have
additional five stores in the pipeline that we expect to open
by the end of 2020, and we hope to end this calendar year with
close to 60 stores," ASICS India and South Asia, managing
director Rajat Khurana said.
    "In 2021, we hope to have a stronger growth momentum,
and will look to open one store per month with plans to add
12-15 stores," he said.
    "The overall sales this year will rise up in the
coming year. We will continue to build up on our retail
expansion strategy as we dig deep into the smaller towns to
build a deeper brand recall value," Khurana said without
divulging revenue details.
    The brand opened doors to the consumers with its
second store in Kolkata in Quest Mall and was in process of
launching another store in Bangalore.
    However, the company had to switch to online marketing
strategies for deeper reach.
    "We expect the online channel to contribute over 35
per cent to the overall sales in this year and rise up in the
coming year. We will continue to build up on our retail
expansion strategy as we dig deep into the smaller towns to
build a deeper brand recall value," Khurana said.
    "In recent months, we witnessed that most sales on e-
commerce now come from smaller towns and this has motivated us
to open stores in these towns," he said.
    Commenting on competition without divulging revenues
he said, "We are also confident that we will achieve a similar
scale soon and with the running segment growing 25 per cent
YoY, we surely have a fair chance to catch up with them." PTI
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(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)