Gap hopes new GST rates will boost growth in India

By

Maverick Martins

Published
Jun 6, 2017

American apparel and accessories brand Gap is hopeful that the new GST rates is going to help growth of this brand in India, a top company official from Arvind Brands which owns the franchise rights for Gap told the Economic Times. Presently there is an import duty levied on global products which Arvind Brands hopes is going to reduce with new GST rates.

“We are very bullish about GAP. There is some duty imposed on the import, with the coming of GST, we hope that tax is going to be reduced. We are also very confident because we now have a domestic manufacturing unit for GAP in India, I”m sure that is going to help the brand in the country,” said J Suresh, MD and CEO at Arvind Lifestyle Brands and Arvind Retail, which runs JVs and franchisees of top global brands including, Gant, Gap, Ed Hardy, Sephora, The Children’s Place, Aeropostale among other.

He said apparel is a mass consumption item and in terms of employment too, the sector is big employment generator.

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“The compliance with the industry will go up which is good for overall growth of the industry,” he said.

Gap entered India through a franchise partnership with Arvind Lifestyle Brand in 2015. With the local manufacturing unit, Arvind also plans to re-work on Gap’s pricing in India.

Arvind is also planning to resume expansion for Gap in India. Presently Gap has 11 stores here and as per Suresh, by next year end, Arvind plans to start 3-4 stores putting an investment of Rs 8 crore each store.

The brand has recently formed exclusive partnership with Amazon to widen reach of Gap merchandise in places where Gap is not physically present.

“Gap is very well known in India. We get demand from places where we don’t have stores, so the online channel caters to that demand. There is always a demand from across the country,” he added.