Pavers England to invest $3 Million in Deesign Studio at Chennai

Bangalore, Apr 9(UNI) UK based Pavers England Footprints Limited (PEFL) will be investing $ three Million in its Design Centre to be set up in Chennai, PEFL Chairman Stuart Paver said today.

Talking to newsmen here to announce his company's foray into Indian footwear sector through a tie-up with Reliance Footprint, a format of Reliance Retail Ltd., he said that this was for the first time the company making investment in designing and with in next three years it is expected to produce 20 million designs.

Mr Stuart said that the company, in its attempt to capture a sizable market share in India, will be investing Million in next three years for manufacture of company's footwear in India.

Replying to a question, he said that there is no possibility of opening footwear production centre in India at present, but manufacturing would be distributed to different units.

Indian footwear market is presently Rs 15,000 crore and growing at 15 per cent per year.

PEFL Joint Managing Director Utsav Sath said that the company had registered a $ 400 Million turnover last year and sales growth was 20 per cent.

Stating that the United Kingdom retail sector was estimated at 0 billion, contributing to 8 per cent of the GDP, Mr Utsav said that "UK companies are keen to invest in India in retail business." Reliance Footprint Limited Chief Executive Gopalkrishna said that Reliance is the first stone in India to house the products of Pavers-UK's fastest growing footwear brand.

He said that it was proposed to have a pan India presence by opening over 35 large specialty stores across metros and mini-metros within next 12 months. At present Reliance Footprint has three stores one each in Bangalore, Hyderabad and Delhi.

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