Lacoste to tap airports for expansion

French sportswear major, Lacoste is looking to tap air travellers by opening more outlets at airports in major cities in India. Out of eight new retail outlets that the company plans to open in India this year, three will be at Hyderabad and Mumbai airports. At present, the company has 46 stores in 18 cities across the country.

Although sales from outlets at the airports are not much, the company is looking to increase its contribution in the firm's overall sales in India."We will be opening one outlet at the Hyderabad domestic terminal and at Mumbai airport," Lacoste India Director & CEO Rajesh Jain told PTI.

Without sharing the company's revenues in India, he said, "The new retail stores at airports would start contributing up to 7 per cent of our total sales from next financial year."

The company already has an outlet at Bangalore airport and is exploring other cities as well. "Delhi and Kochi will be our target for opening retail stores," Jain said.

At the airport stores, the company sells mainly fast selling items like T-shirts and other accessories. Lacoste is present in the country in seven out of eight categories, including apparels, footwear and fragrance."Apparels contributes 89 per cent, 6 to 7 per cent is by footwear and 2 per cent by leather goods as bags and rest is constituted by wrist watches, belts. Fragrance is handled by different entity here," he said.