(Alliance News) - FILA Spa announced Thursday that it is continuing its growth path in India, where it began investing in 2012.

With more than 350 million children in the age group up to 14 years, a population of nearly 1.4 billion people and more than 3.4 percent of Gross Domestic Product invested in education, India represents one of the most strategic markets for future growth for the FILA group.

The group has been present in this market since 2012 through the company DOMS Industries Pvt Ltd, of which it first acquired 18.5 percent with an investment of EUR5.4 million, when the company was billing about EUR10 million, and since 2015 it has increased its share to 51 percent, fully consolidating it, following an investment of EUR36 million, when the company was billing about EUR7.0 million.

DOMS, today, is one of the few companies globally capable of producing more than 25 product categories in the Stationary, Office, Hobby&Craft segments driven by a continuous focus on research and development and product innovation; it has 13 state-of-the-art production facilities serving the domestic market and for the other companies of the group worldwide employing more than 7,500 people; it has vertically integrated production that allows it to have control and competitive advantage over one of the main cost items - wood - achieving economies of scale, supply chain rationalization and effective resource planning.

It also boasts a well-established national distribution network, with more than 100 wholesalers covering all 28 states and 8 "unions," more than 3,500 distributors throughout India, a sales team of more than 500 people reaching more than 150,000 points of sale; growing presence in the e-commerce segment; high DOMS brand recognition in the Indian market - 30 percent of the market share in the pencil segment -, including through a targeted branding and advertising policy; and significant growth in the Fine Art segment expected in the coming years.

"India today represents the second largest market in the world for the FILA group and has recorded a double-digit CAGR since 2012, accelerating in recent years and forecasting for 2022 a progress of about 50% compared to the pre-Covid values of 2019 for over EUR110 million in sales, with the highest profitability figure in the Indian market," commented Massimo Candela, CEO of FILA.

"Our goal is to continue in this direction by enhancing our presence and supporting the company's growth in the coming years, in what represents the most important country where to do business in the next 10 years; for this reason, we plan to duplicate the industrial footprint in 2023 with an investment in Capex of about EUR15 million to support a significant double-digit growth for the next five years. Finally, we expect that the strategic contribution of this investment, which is characterized by extraordinary progress both organically and through eventual transactions supporting value creation, can contribute significantly to the performance of FILA's stock in the market."

FILA's stock is up 1.1 percent at EUR7.08 per share.

By Giuseppe Fabio Ciccomascolo, Alliance News senior reporter

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