Reliance Brands, a subsidiary of Reliance Retail, has entered into a 49:51 joint venture (JV) with Italian fashion house Sixty Group to retail its brands in the country.
Commenting on the JV, Renato Rossi, co-founder and CEO of Sixty Group, said: “We are pleased to partner with Reliance Brands. The team at Reliance Brands has a reputation for successfully launching and nurturing well-known international brands. This combined with the Reliance Group’s infrastructural strengths in IT, supply chain and real estate, makes them the ideal long-term partner for us in India.”
The JV will usher in Sixty Group’s brands like Miss Sixty, Killah, Energie and Murphy&Nye. Sixty Group brands are sold worldwide in about 7,000 points of sale across more than 100 countries. It is learnt that Reliance Brands will also retail Sixty Group’s other brands like Sixty, Refrigwear, Richlu and Baracuta in the near future.
Darshan Mehta, president and CEO, Reliance Brands, observed: “The Sixty Group brand portfolio is very impressive and the appeal of its key brands Miss Sixty, Energie, Killah and Murphy&Nye cuts through gender and age cluster, thus promising a greater choice to the growing universe of fashion-conscious Indian consumers.”
Established in October 2007, Reliance Brands is learnt to have been exploring more JVs and distribution agreements with global fashion and luxury leaders to bring them into the Indian market. Also, there are reports that the company is in advance talks with Gap Inc. to retail the latter’s brands in the country.
– Vishnu Rageev R, Bengaluru Bureau
