May 11, 2013: Sahara which has business interests in diverse areas such as TV Channels, retail, affordable homes etc. is planning to create the first Indian premium luxury brand and to create an Indian Luxury Chain which would be selling Indian made products in International markets. The venture is being spearheaded by Chandni Roy who happens to be the daughter-in-law of Sahara Group Chairman, Subrata Roy. The group which recently bought a 42 per cent stake in F1 team Force India for USD 100 million has got some very big ambitious plans so as to expose the global consumers to India.
Speaking about the new venture of creating the premium luxury Indian brand and the initiative to open luxury life style stores across the globe, Chandni Roy said, “The focus is to create the first Indian premium luxury brand, which will expose the global consumer to India as never seen before.” Though much of the details about this new venture is not out, it is being said that a new company has been set for this project which would be dealing in Clothing, Accessories and Lifestyle products. The group would opening its first stores in London and New York.
It would be interesting to see how Sahara builds a global brand and that too from India which has largely remained a consumer oriented country which consumes International brands. As a famous saying goes, ‘Luxury brands cannot be created overnight’ and that too when countries like China and Japan do not have big brands in the Luxury markets, there will be a lot of scepticism on this move. What is more interesting to note is that this new announcement comes at a time when Sahara is grappling with SEBI’s order of returning back the money to the tune of Rs.24,000 crores to 30 million small investors.
