During a time when Indian consumers are becoming more interested in sports and leading healthier lifestyles, Decathlon is placing a large bet on the country’s growth story. The biggest sports goods merchant anticipates that in the coming years, India will rank amongst its top five markets. In addition to increasing its sourcing from India, the business, which runs in India under the single-brand retail FDI policy, wants to keep its products accessible.

The business unveiled a new brand identity and posture on Tuesday, along with a new strategy centered on a stronger emphasis on innovation and sustainability. The new identity includes the “orbit” logo.

To Increase Sourcing, Decathlon Anticipates That India Will Rank Among Its Top Five Markets

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“At Decathlon, we want to have a greater positive impact on humans, society, and the planet by ‘Moving People Through the Wonders of Sport’,” said Barbara Martin Coppola, Global CEO of Decathlon, during a press conference. We have developed a new plan that is based on this new goal and will help us to progressively improve many areas of our company. This entails modernizing our business from top to bottom, expediting the transition to sustainability, and reconstructing our customer experience.

Declaring that India is one of the company’s “leapfrog” countries, India is a “big priority market,” according to Decathlon Chief Retail and Countries Officer Steve Dykes, who was speaking on the occasion’s fringes. He continued by saying that the business thinks it can play a major part in raising consumer interest in sports and growing the sports goods sector in India. Based on revenue contribution, India is currently ranked in the top 10 markets.

It could rise to be one of the top five markets, in our opinion. Currently, we are headed in the right direction. In five years, hopefully, it will reach that point,” he continued.

In India, the retailer of sporting goods has 122 locations. The company, according to Dykes, hopes to continue growing at a healthy rate, adding 10 outlets annually.

These will be a combination of larger and smaller format stores with expansive play areas, up to 4,000 square meters. We like to think of every city in India as a separate nation. That functions pretty well since we can adjust our services accordingly because there is a “no one size fits all” approach to sports, as seen by the rising popularity of running in Delhi and badminton in Hyderabad. Speaking about intentions to increase sourcing, Dykes said that, in terms of quantity, 60% of the brand’s products are currently manufactured in India. Only a small number of nations have ever accomplished this feat. To pass on the savings and increase the accessibility of our products, we aim to reach 90–95%. With Prime Minister Modi promoting “Make-in-India,” the collaboration has gone fairly well. We can “Make-in-India” and export to every country in the world because of our size, Dykes continued.