Galeries Lafayette sets foot in India with Mumbai store

MUMBAI: Parisian luxury department store Galeries Lafayette is tapping India for growth, a market it said lacks luxury retail avenues for high spending consumers who shop for a spate of labels across pricey fashion houses and shopping stores abroad.The retailer’s flagship store in Paris’s Boulevard Haussmann is the second most-visited tourist spot in the French capital after Eiffel Tower and attracts 35 million visitors a year, half of which are foreigners.Galeries Lafayette, which is launching in India through partnership with the Aditya Birla Group, will open its first store in Mumbai early next month, after eight years of studying the local market and consumer nuances.“India is a key and strategic country. It also has great opportunities in terms of growth. Indian consumers are already very interested in buying luxury brands and products. They consume them not only in India but also abroad — Dubai, Singapore, the UK, Paris and especially in Galeries Lafayette. Clearly, there is a lack of offer inside India…there are no (luxury) department stores here,” Galeries Lafayette CEO Arthur Lemoine, told TOI in an interview here.The India foray, announced three years back, comes at a time when US tariff turmoil has clouded global growth prospects, nudging companies to review strategies.Of the 67 Galeries Lafayette stores globally, 58 are in home market France with the rest of the nine outlets spread across Asia including China, Indonesia and Dubai.The luxury brand has stitched a 20-year licensing agreement with the Aditya Birla Group. “Beyond the year which are written in the contract, we are here to build the future together,” said Lemoine. The four-storey department store in south Mumbai will house a broad range of global products — from bags to beauty, apparel and accessories. From a Rs 25-lakh bag to a Rs 3,000 lipstick, the idea is to cater to the luxury consumers but also tapping into the premium cohort who are willing to upgrade to high-end brands.“Luxury in our country today stands at the threshold of transformation,” said Aditya Birla Group chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla, adding that “In the span of less than a decade, the market is set to grow over four-fold from $20 billion to almost $90 billion by 2030.”The brand play will be omni-channel to give access to a wider set of affluent consumers, many of whom are sitting in non-metros. “In India, we have pockets of consumption all across the country,” said R Sathyajit, CEO, international brands at Aditya Birla Fashion & Retail adding that the company’s own website will be launched in a couple of months.Delhi will house the next Galeries Lafayette store. Currently, the assortment at the store is global with a tilt towards French and Parisian brands. “Over a period of time, we would also like to be a platform for emerging designers in India as well. The beauty of a department store is that it evolves with time, reflecting changing generations, tastes,” Sathyajit said.