Madura Fashion & Lifestyle, a division of Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Limited (ABFRL), is in race to get the rights for running physical stores for the American fashion brand, Forever 21. E-commerce company Myntra is also part of the race to acquire the rights, according to sources cited by Times of India. A deal is yet to be signed.
Forever 21, whose competitors include Zara and H&M, has a partnership with DLF Brands since 2013. According to sources quoted by the publication, Forever 21 operates almost a dozen retail stores in India. However, the Los Angeles-based brand has been looking to exit the joint venture with DLF for sometime now.
The fashion brand entered India in 2010.
Madura Fashion & Lifestyle is also keen to additionally acquire the online sale rights of Forever 21, which at present are held by Myntra.
"There may have been some resistance by the Myntra board about taking the offline route. They are not sure running brick-and-motor stores would be appropriate at this time as it would digress from their online-only strategy," another source was quoted as saying by TOI.
Forever 21 had, last year, inked a deal with Flipkart (which owns Myntra) to sell its products online in India. Madura, on its part, wants to bring the American fashion brand to its e-commerce platform Abof.com, which was launched by Aditya Birla in October 2015. It competes with Myntra and Jabong.
Forever 21 is the fifth largest speciality retailer in the U.S. It plans to open 600 stores across the world in the next three years.
The Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Limited stock closed at Rs. 150.80 on Monday, down 4.92 percent from its previous close.
