Brooks Brothers, Pavers’ investment plans cleared

Brooks Brothers, America's oldest clothing retailer, and UK footwear chain Pavers England will be the first to take advantage of the government's decision in January to allow 100-per cent foreign ownership in single brand retail, as their investment proposals in India have been cleared by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB).

Another proposal by Italian jewellery brand Damiani to set up a 51:49 joint venture with Mehta's Pvt Ltd also got the government's approval, economic affairs secretary Arvind Mayaram, who heads the FIPB, said.

According to PTI, the footwear retailer plans to invest Rs100 crore. At present, Pavers sells products through its Chennai-based master franchisee Triton Retail in 28 exclusive stores across India and also through retail outlets of Reliance Footprint, Lifestyle, Shoppers Stop and Westside.

This is the first set of such clearances after the government eased single-brand retail guidelines last month, making voluntary a condition that companies should source 30 per cent of the value of their products from small- and mid-sized domestic suppliers.

Pavers England was the first company to seek approval to set up a fully owned Indian unit in January, followed by Swedish furniture maker Ikea and American fashion brand Fossil. Pavers said it already sources 30 per cent of the value of its products from India.

In the next 24 months, Pavers plans to open 120 independent outlets and take shop-in-shop stores to 350, said Utsav Seth, chief executive officer and managing director of the company's Indian arm.