M&S to Double its Presence in India

Marks & Spencer Group Plc (London) has announced plans to double the number of stores it operates in India, making it the retailer’s largest international market.

M&S said it expects to have 80 outlets in the Asian sub-continent by 2016, compared with 36 now.

The expansion is part of a venture the British retailer formed in 2008 with Reliance Industries Ltd. (Mumbai), controlled by the country’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani.

The announcement came as Marks & Spencer opened its largest Indian location, a 35,000-square-foot  store in Mumbai’s upscale Bandra neighborhood.

The basement of the outlet is dedicated to lingerie, part of Marks & Spencer’s intention to expand its offerings in India. Lingerie accounts for about a third of M&S’s clothing sales around the world. That market in India is also estimated to be on the verge of reaching $6 billion by 2017.

The retailer plans to open similarly expansive lingerie sections in other Indian stores and is considering standalone outlets for women’s innerwear, according to Jan Heere, who oversees M&S’s international operations.

Sales at Indian stores increased 28 percent in the six months ended September 2014, and same-store sales showed “double-digit” growth.

M&S is counting on international growth to help reverse nine straight quarters of declining same-store sales in clothing and general merchandise.