Since his exit from German sportswear major, PUMA, Abhishek Ganguly literally has had his running shoes on. For starters, Ganguly in partnership with Amit Prabhu and Atul Bajaj started Agilitas Sports - an innovation-led sportswear and athleisure solutions platform.
The company raised over Rs 500 crore as capital and acquired B2B footwear manufacturing firm, Mochiko Shoes. The strategy behind this acquisition was to “play end-to-end from manufacturing to retail”.
The company has now entered the consumer business with the acquisition of a brand licence for the Italian sports brand Lotto from WHP Global for a tenure of 40 years. Through this licence, Agilitas will have exclusive rights to design, manufacture, promote, distribute, and retail the Lotto brand in India, South Asia, Australia, and South Africa.
e4m had an exclusive chat with Abhishek Ganguly, the Co-founder & CEO of Agilitas Sports, on the acquisition. He also spoke about the company’s aspiration to be India's largest sports company, and building a billion-dollar sports and athleisure company from India.
The market size for the premium and mid-price sportswear market performance and athleisure in India is estimated to be around $2 billion, and this is projected to reach $8 billion by 2032. Ganguly says, “The sportswear market is growing phenomenally in India, driven by macro factors such as the widening of the Indian middle class and more disposable income and a very young demographic, and this was the thesis behind setting up Agilitas Sports. We will get into the wide spaces that we believe exist today, which would be to deliver high-quality sportswear, both on the performance and athleisure side, to the Indian consumer at a price in favour of the consumer.”
Ganguly further stated the company would be investing in the consumer business with different brands, with different positioning and offering for the consumers. “We will be investing in three to four brands because we want to be relevant to a large base of target consumers in India.”
As per Ganguly, all the brands in Agilitas Sports’ portfolio will complement each other and there will be no overlap or competition between them. The strategy is to increase the total addressable market with multiple brands, each with a separate management team and resource capital allocated for the brand’s growth.
However, for the moment, Lotto is poised for a full-fledged launch early next year with a wide product offering across multiple categories, multiple distribution channels and a strong marketing plan.
Commenting on the marketing plans Ganguly says, “In the first two, three years, we will allocate a significant amount of our capital towards ensuring that the brand, the ethos of the brand, the positioning of the brand, as well as the key products of the brand are visible to the consumer. Hence, we will put a lot of capital into efficiently doing that. We will not spray and paint, but we will stand for a few things. We will dig that very deeply.”
He further says, “I have never absolutely believed that the marketing investment percentages make or break a brand. As a consumer company, the various elements of your business are marketing. Product and pricing are important parts of the marketing mix as is focusing on consumer experience and convivence. If you're in the consumer business, you are in the business of marketing; you are in the business of connecting your brand with your consumer. That's the way Agilitas will win. The entire approach to our consumer business will be marketing.”
On his bigger goals, Ganguly said, “We are looking at building a company which has a net revenue of a billion dollars in the next few years. It’s a definite possibility from what we are attempting to do. I don't say that it will happen in five years or seven years. We are focused on building a billion-dollar company from India in sports and with a long-term sustainable profitable approach.”
