Swiss Military on a major expansion spree in India

Swiss Military, the popular brand having an entire range of Writing Instruments, Travel Gear, Kitchenware, Eye Wear, Leather Goods, Outdoor/Hiking Equipment, Footwear, Cosmetics & Electronics and carrying over 1800 present SKU's in the global portfolio, is now increasing its retail footprint in the Indian sub-continent.

Recently, while the brand launched their new portfolio in Kolkata just before the Durga Pujas, Anuj Sawhney, Managing Director, Swiss Military Worldwide said, "As per our research, the retail sales in Kolkata have gone up exponentially in the last five years.  The increase in the retail growth of the city can be attributed to rising consumer aspirations and also the surge in purchasing power. Swiss Military defines affordable luxury and is well positioned to cater to the demands and aspirational values of the customers.”

Swiss Military has established a strong presence in 26 countries globally, with brand registrations in 40 countries and over 600 retail stores in Europe alone across various product segments. In the Indian context, the brand has presence in over 550 retail points including all major Large Format Stores across 23 states pan-India.

"We entered the Indian retail market in April 2014 and recently celebrated the opening of our 550th shop-in-shop store pan-India. In the future, we plan to open 160 Franchisee and 11 company owned stores to continue the robust growth trajectory in the Indian sub-continent. In the first phase, we are launching 4 EBO's in Kolkata, Delhi, Bengaluru and Mumbai, these will be all company owned and the rest 7 will be coming by the end of 2016. Also the franchisee stores will be spread across the length and breadth of India both in metro cities and Tier I and Tier II locations which are having great sales potential” Anuj added. The brand franchisee operations and company owned stores are set to commence by November 2015.

Being a virgin brand in the Indian market, the company is now looking at investing hugely in retail penetration and will be spending around Rs 200 crore by the end of 2016 for setting up retail and distribution network. In East zone, the brand will be spending around Rs 30 crore to address the inventories which are planned for the zone. The cities covered will include Kolkata, Siliguri, Guwahati, Patna, Jharkhand and also the North East belt like Kohima, Tripura etc.

The company owned stores will be housing the entire range of Swiss Military and they will measure around 3000-5000 sq. ft. and the franchisee stores will be around 600-1000 sq, ft depending upon the space available. The wide appeal of the brand with its target audience of Young Adults is also making the brand a favourite in both the offline and online medium. Swiss military will soon be extensively present on Snapdeal, Amazon, Myntra, PayTM & Flipkart.