Getting in touch with your inner Victoria Beckham has never been easier here in India. Want to blow a few million bucks on a Hermès handbag à la the former Posh Spice? Or splash out on a pair of obscenely expensive Jimmy Choo shoes? Or sip on Diva, a gem-filtered vodka that comes at a jaw-dropping Rs 1.9 crore a bottle? Well, you can do all that and more, for these über-luxury brands are soon coming to India. Plebs and non-aspirants can go take a walk. India’s bling brigade has become the target of the most staggeringly expensive objects of desire.
Sample this. Next month, high-end designer shoe brand Jimmy Choo will set up shop in Mumbai with its entire fall/winter collection. Gucci, another ultra luxury apparels and accessories brand, is also set to open in Mumbai later this year, as is La Perla, a top-end Italian lingerie brand. Not just that, French designer label Jean Paul Gaultier is unveiling a boutique in Delhi next month with its range of prêt-à-porter, accessories, fragrances, etc. Waiting to join the party are luxury watchmakers A. Lange & Söhne and Jacob & Co. and, of course, the French fashion house Hermès, creator of such astonishing baubles as the $148,000 crocodile skin Birkin handbag that’s studded with enough diamonds to draw a gasp of envy at any super chic do in the world.
But if you’ve had your fill of designer handbags and ultra modish shoes, bijoux watches and classy couture, and if your parking lot is stuffed with sundry low-slung limos, you might want to expand your wish list and sink a fortune on a cool new sailboat. Luxury yachts such as Pershing and Ferretti are now available in India. A 90-footer Pershing, complete with state-of-the-art trimmings, could be your own bit of opulence on the ocean. What’s more, it’s guaranteed to ratchet up your snob quotient many times over.
But at RS 30 crore a whack, how many of these dreamboats will they manage to sell in this country? “The demand is there,” says a confident Anju Dutta of Marine Solutions, distributers and importers of Pershing and Ferretti yachts in India. “We have already got our first orders.”
That confidence underpins the India strategy of all the global luxury brands that are falling over each other to have a footprint in this country. Many of them are here already — LVMH (owners of such brands as Louis Vuitton, Fendi, etc), Chanel, Salvatore Ferragamo, Burberry, Moschino, Ermenegildo Zegna, Hugo Boss; luxury watch brands like Breguet, Frank Muller, Chopard and a host of others; ultra luxe automobiles such as the Maybach, Porsche, Audi, BMW, Lamborghini, Bentley or the Rolls Royce; and even such high end tipple as Chateau Pétrus, of which, a goodish vintage could set you back by more than a couple of lakhs a bottle. All of them, as well as the new entrants to the field, have their eyes set on India’s burgeoning rich. Flush, flash, and ready to splurge, they now make an irresistible market for the most exclusive — and pricey — global labels in the world.
Indeed, for the well-heeled, well-travelled Indian, the concept of luxury itself is changing. Says Dilip Cherian, brand consultant, “The elite are moving away from traditional symbols of success like diamonds and jewellery. They are willing to pay a premium of 20 to 200 per cent for all kinds of aspirational purchases.” Agrees Pritti Kumar, editor of the luxury magazine Global Gujarati and a connoisseur of high-end products herself, “Rich Indians are now spending a lot more to acquire global luxury brands.”
Which is why Sujata Assumoll, communications head for the New York-based Murjani group, that is bringing Gucci, Jimmy Choo and La Perla to India, is gung-ho about the brands’ prospects in the country. “There is a huge demand for such products, a demand primarily driven by the younger audience,” she says. Volvo, which too should be here by the end of this year, and would be priced at somewhere in the region of Rs 50 lakh, reflects a similar upbeat mood. Says Paul De Voijs, managing director, Volvo India, “In countries where the car market cannot yet be described as mature, we often see that economic growth translates into a booming business for luxury cars. We are confident that the same will happen in India.”
Of course, only a minuscule proportion of the Indian population can pick up a Rs 80,000 La Perla bustier on a whim, or sport a Rs 55 lakh Breguet Tourbillon, or go swanning around in a Rs 3.5 crore Bentley Arnage RL. But in terms of absolute numbers, this creamy layer is deep enough to get luxury brands drooling. According to India Luxury Trends 2006, a report by management consulting firm KSA Technopak, there are 1.6 million households in India with an annual income of Rs 45 lakh and above and who spend upwards of Rs 4 lakh a year on luxury items. Moreover, the number of such households is growing at the rate of 14 per cent per annum.
AND MIND YOU, THESE ARE CONS- ervative estimates. As R.K. Shukla, senior fellow, the National Council of Applied Economic Research, Delhi, which has similar data on the top segment of the population, points out, “Such surveys do not include the high-earning, high-spending film stars, big industrialists, or politicians. Nor does it include undisclosed income. So the actual spending power of the upper segment of the population is probably much more.”
That said, the astronomically pricey luxury items are not exactly flying off the shelves here. The sale of a Rs 6-crore Maybach (from the DaimlerChrysler stable), a Rs 2.25 crore Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder or a Rs 3.6 crore limited edition Rolex takes place in ones and twos, and that too over a whole year. Satya Bagla, head of Exclusive Motors, Delhi, which sells Bentleys and Lambos in India, admits that sales haven’t been too brisk. “But the business is encouraging and sustainable,” he says impassively.
However, market watchers point out that premium luxury brands are not really about numbers. “They are into the value space,” says Amit Adarkar, managing director, Market Probe, India and Dubai. “Even if they sell small numbers, their per unit realisation is so huge that it’s worth staying in the game.”
Indeed, the leaders in luxury are not complaining. They are here for the long haul where creating brand awareness among India’s fast growing, aspirational, middle and upper classes is as important as racking up sales. And there is every indication that the strategy is paying off already. Bar the absolute crème de la crème in luxury, other top line brands are doing rather well. Vertu mobiles, with an entry price of Rs 2.2 lakh, claims it grew 300 per cent last year in India. Super luxury menswear brand Ermenegildo Zegna, which opened a single retail outlet in Mumbai in May this year, plans to take its wares to Delhi and Bangalore by the end of 2007, reveals Zegna South Asia managing director Rahul Prasad. And Mercedes Benz, so beloved of the arriviste Indian, has already sold 1454 cars this year across its entire available range — from the Rs 25-lakh “bread and butter” C Class to the Rs 1 crore plus CL Class.
Interestingly, small town India is also tiptoeing into the rarefied world of international luxury. “Kolhapur has the highest density of Mercedes cars in India,” reveals Manas Dewan, divisional manager, DaimlerChrysler India. Audi too will soon set up shop in Ludhiana, no doubt in an effort to tap into the wealthy rural Punjab belt.
But it’s one thing to spend a fortune on such an obvious status symbol as a luxury automobile. It’s quite another to blow a crore or more on, say, a jewellery watch. Luxury brands are betting that India’s swish set will increasingly do just that. Whether that comes to pass only time — bejewelled or otherwise — will tell.
