Columbia Sportswear aims Rs 170cr sales with 35 stores by FY18

US-based Columbia Sportswear would have 35 stores by FY 2017-18 in India and expects its domestic sales to go up to Rs 170 crore by then.
Chogori India Retail Ltd, which has distribution tie-up with Columbia Sportswear, would add 3 more stores in its retail network by the end of December 2015, taking its total count to 21.
Apart from that, Chogori would add other outdoor brands as Goal Zero, Nalgene, Buff, Black Diamond and Julbo, to be sold in a shop-in-shop concept at its existing Columbia Sportswear stores, making them as one stop destination for expeditionary marketing.
"By the end of FY 2017-18, we would have a sales turnover between Rs 150 crore to Rs 170 crore from Columbia. By that time, apart from Columbia, we would launch seven additional brands, some of which would be online, some would be in brick & mortar and some in both formats," Chogori India Retail Ltd Vice-President Khyati Bhinde told PTI.

The company ventured in the outdoor sports retail in 2013 with first Columbia store.
It has stores in Bombay, Pune, Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata, and Chandigarh, and three new would come at Noida, Guwahati and Leh.

Presently, Columbia Sportswear's stores are company-owned and company-operated. However, in future, it would add stores on franchise model also and have a mix of both formats.
According to Bhinde, by 2016, brands as Nalgene, Goal Zero, Black Diamond, Buff and Julbo would be in its portfolio.
"We would have different strategies for them. For Nalgene, which makes water bottles, we would put it within our Columbia store by adding a kiosk. Similarly we would put Buff, which makes scarfs, on the shop-in-shop concept. The strategy would differ according to the brands," she added.

A majority of its customers are between the age of 25 and 40, who now prefer to venture out every month.
Apart from brick & mortar, the company is also exploring opportunities on the online space through its own portal and channel partners.
"The company has also launched an e-commerce portal columbiasportswear.Co.In in October last year and we have partnered with Myntra exclusively for few months. We would have some more partners in future," she added.