Mango reopens offline operations in India at Kolkata's Forum Courtyard

Mango, the Spanish fashion brand, had shut all its stores in India after their franchise partnership with DLF Brands ended. Myntra, the fashion e-tailer has now bagged the principal supply management rights for Mango. Retail4Growth chats up with Shifali Singh, Vice President – International Business Myntra and Mango, India Head to know more about the retail plans of this fashion label.

Tell us about the partnership of Mango and Myntra?

Myntra has got a relation with Mango Barcelona since last three years when we bagged the online rights for their distribution in India in 2014, and the online business was growing as much as 100%. So when the Mango Barcelona team was looking at consolidating their operations here in India they wanted a single partner for maintaining both the online and brick n mortar business and from the brand perspective we believe that all these channels complement each other, so thus came Myntra’s role in managing the physical retail of Mango in India.

Why has Mango selected Kolkata for relaunching its offline presence in India?

The reason behind going with the first refurbished store in Kolkata is to cater to the festive spirit of Durga Puja which is the key retail season for this state and being the hub, the city gets the crowd coming from every corner of the region coming here to shop, so we never wanted to miss it. Also with Forum, we have a long standing relation and the store was doing very well previously when it was with the earlier franchise owners. This mall being the first such retail destination of the city enjoys a strong and loyal customer base.

Tell us about the new Mango stores?

The new format stores of Mango will soon open in Delhi by end of September in Saket followed by Palladium in Mumbai in an interval of one month.Once the festive season is over, the Kolkata store will also wear a new look in November. So far the Kolkata store will have the same collection as any of the Mango stores globally. It will reopen with the Fall Winter’17 collection after renovation where both the evening and winter wear will be up.

What is the future offline retail expansion plans for Mango in India?

In the next three to five years, we would like to open around 30 stores Pan India in pivotal key cities and we wish to keep it more as the right shopping experience zone for the brand. In next six month, we will have eight brand new stores ready for our shoppers.

How much of your online business comes from the smaller towns?

 From the very beginning, we have been getting a good response from these smaller towns and almost 45% of our business comes from tier II and III cities of India.