Fossil Inc., a renowned brand of watch and accessories from USA is all set to open its first single-brand retail store in India, after getting clearance by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board.
The first store is believed to launch in Bangalore in coming months.
Fossil is among the first batch of global brands that recently got cleared by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board for setting up single-brand retail stores after the Government raised the FDI limit for such retail to 100 per cent.
“We are currently working on our first flagship store that is mostly likely to come up in Bangalore. We will follow this up with three more stores, probably in Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad about 12 months from now,” Gautam Kapur, National Sales Head, Fossils India, mentioned.
Without disclosing the investment that would go into these stores, he said each of these would have a minimum carpet area of 1,000 sq ft and located either in a mall or a suitable location on the high street.
The company has submitted a proposal to invest about $ 4.5 million in the initial phase to set up its single-brand stores. “After consolidating our first set of stores, we plan to put in place a chain of 15 stores in the next five years,” Kapur said.
Putting itself in the ‘bridge-to-luxury’ category, Fossil’s range of watches are priced between Rs 5,000 and Rs 15,000, while the cost of the other brands in its portfolio go up to Rs 35,000. This category of timepieces has a share of about 40 per cent of the Indian watch market in the organised sector, which is estimated at Rs 2,500 crore.