Reliance Retail to open 50 Gap brand stores by December 2023

Reliance Retail plans to open 50 exclusive stores of American apparel brand Gap by the end of this year, said a top company official.

As part of the strategy, Gap's offering would also consist of Indian preferences in designs and colours and select patterns, said Reliance Retail President & CEO, Fashion & Lifestyle, Akhilesh Prasad.

Reliance Retail on Friday announced the opening of its first freestanding Gap store in India in Mumbai.

After opening over 50 Gap shop-in-shops stores since last year, Reliance Retail has now initiated the second phase, in which it plans a similar number of exclusive stores.

When asked about the expansion, Prasad told PTI: "We would be opening 50 stores in the next 12 months."

As part of its strategy, Reliance plans to take the Gap brand beyond developed metro markets. It has plans to open Gap stores in mini-metros, the state capital and then down to cities with 3 to 5 lakh population.

"Initially we will be targeting the top ten cities," he said.

Gap's range of offerings would also have "Indian inspiration" and "Indian designs".

On pricing, Prasad said, Gap would not be a high-priced brand compared to other luxury brands operating in India. It would be a premium brand with a price starting from Rs 900 for a T-shirt and then go upwards.

India now has a substantial number of people who have used Gap brand products, and follows global trends and international fashion brands.

"We believe that Gap can grow much faster and quicker in India," Prasad said.

Earlier Gap has a partnership with Arvind Lifestyle Brands, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Arvind Fashions, which was mutually terminated in 2020. Two years later Gap partnered with Reliance Retail.

According to Prasad, offerings by Gap this time in partnership with Reliance Retail would be different.

"Gap remains the same, their partner has only changed. However, they have learned what works in India and what does not. The range of merchandise is much more different. It is now much more colourful to suit Indian taste and the size of the store is also larger because of the larger offerings." he said.

Now India is one of the fastest growing economy and the disposable income in the hands of people is also on the rise proportionately.

"We believe the market (Indian) is just ripe for a brand like Gap to be introduced and quickly scale up," Prasad said expecting the acceptance of Gap as a brand "would be good".

Over sourcing Gap's merchandise, Prasad said it would not be a hurdle as the San Francisco-based brand sources a lot of products from India.

"Over a period of time, as the network grows, more and more of the Gap designs would be produced in India. We would not have supply as a constraint," he said.