Underdog Athletics to add up to 10 Under Armour stores every yr, eyes 3-fold rise in retail revenue

New Delhi, Jul 14 (PTI) Underdog Athletics, the exclusive distributor and licensee for US-based athletic performance apparel and footwear brand Under Armour in India, plans to add eight to ten stores every year eyeing up to three-fold rise in retail revenue, a senior company official said.

Underdog Athletics is aiming retail revenue of around Rs 1,500 crore in next five years, according to its Managing Director, Tushar Goculdas.

The brand, which had opened its latest format brand house store at Ambience Mall, Gurugram last week, plans to enter five to ten new cities in India, while strengthening presence in major cities where it is already present, Goculdas told PTI.

"Last three years, we have had a stable growth of around 25 per cent. This year also, we expect to grow at 25-odd per cent. In FY25 we reached retail value revenue -- the value of products purchased by the consumer actually -- of Rs 500 crore," he said when asked about the brand's growth since Underdog Athletics became Under Armour's exclusive distributor and licensee in India in 2021.

On the road ahead, Goculdas said, "From here on, we will continue to grow in the 20 plus per cent range. At a five-year horizon, it will take us to maybe two-and-a-half to three times the revenue in that time frame." When asked about store expansion, he said, "We are at 49 (stores now) and our plan was always, since the beginning, to open eight to ten stores every year. We are sticking to that plan this year.

"We have a target of eight to 10 stores, and hopefully we'll be somewhere there, It is not a hard and fast target for any particular year, but that's a long-term average that we want".

In terms of cities, he said currently Under Armour is present in 30 cities with about 16-17 stores in the three big metros -- Delhi-NCR, Mumbai and Bangalore.

"We are not going to expand very aggressively into new cities although there are few more where we have opportunity to grow...in a three year horizon, there are five to ten cities where we can enter," he said, adding these include Patna, Ranchi, Varanasi, Siliguri and Visakhapatnam.

Goculdas further said, "We will continue to add more stores in the existing cities as well. We will add in Delhi-NCR and Mumbai. In Bangalore also, we have the opportunity to add more stores." PTI RKL DRR