Metro Brands sees premium segment demand on the rise

One of the largest Indian footwear and accessories specialty retailers, Metro Brands, is seeing business normalize as premium segment demand continues to rise.

According to Nissan Joseph, Chief Executive Officer at Metro Brands, segments over Rs 3,000 are growing considerably, which speaks of the premiumisation that Metro Brands is pushing towards.

This also indicates that the consumer is willing to adapt their buying habits to where the prices are going.

“We did see some pressure on those below Rs 1,000 primarily because there was 700 basis points (bps) raise in the goods and services tax (GST),” he added.

However, the company will be lapping that as well in the next few months.

“We are seeing business normalize and as it normalizes, we are pleased to see where it is settling into,” he said.

Metro Brands has opened close to about 28 stores in the first half of the year and is on pace to open around 260 stores in the next three years or so.

“We believe this pace will continue through the rest of the year. So we should close out the year with somewhere between 80 and 100 stores, which would put us on pace to open 260 stores that we said we would do in the first three years after listing,” he said.

People are shopping, there is a little bit of pent-up demand, wardrobe refreshes. “We are happy to see that demand continues to remain consistent against our expectations,” he said.

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