In India, the Kickers brand was brought to market by KICL in 2024. KICL had entered into a long-term 30-year licensing and distribution agreement for the brand in India and eight neighbouring countries — Qatar, the sUAE, Saudi Arabia, Nepal, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, and Bangladesh. As part of this expansion, Kickers has already opened and operationalized a store in Qatar.
“We have lot of footwear manufacturing in India. But I don’t believe any Indian company own an international brand. So, small countries like Sweden and European countries own international brands for footwear. So, owning international brand is very important,” Ahmed said at a media interaction in Chennai on Thursday.
“We wanted to take Intellectual property (IP) for Kickers. We are in talks and, hopefully, there will good news which we will announce very soon,” he said.
“Kickers is available all over the world and manufactured in China. Once we acquire, we can get the entire production facility in India,” Ahmed said.
In the non-leather footwear sector, KICL has partnered with Taiwan-based Evervan – Shoe Town Group, which is the third largest contract manufacturing group known for innovative product manufacturing global brands such as Crocs, Adidas, Nike and the like. The joint venture is known as Phoenix Kothari Footwear Ltd.
“The joint-venture has set up facility in Perambalur to manufacture Crocs brand. We have now completed the facility in Karur to make Adidas shoe which will be inaugurated soon. The projects have generated huge employment opportunities especially for women,” Ahmed said. The two projects overall are expected to employ 50,000 people, as per the agreement signed with the Tamil Nadu government.
Ahmed also welcomed the finalization of India-European Union Free Trade agreement (FTA).
“We were facing a lot of challenges due to the US tariffs. We were exporting 60 per cent to the US,” he said.
“The manufacturers were moving to Indonesia because it had FTA with the US and EU. However, land and labour are expensive in Indonesia when compared to India. The EU trade deal brings a huge scope for India. We also hope the trade deal with the US will be finalized soon,” Ahmed said.
N Mohan, Director and CEO, KICL, said that the EU FTA would open up a lot of opportunities the duties were reduced b from 17 per cent to zero.
“With our Taiwanese collaborations, we can add a lot of value and it is phenomenal advantage,” he said.
Indian footwear market is about Rs 120,000 crore and is growing at the rate of 7-8 per cent. And, the premium segment, which is Rs 3,000 and above, is growing at about 12 to 18 per cent. “What that indicates is the aspirational young population in this country want to be fashionable,” Mohan said.
On the tie-up with Accademia IUAD, Italy, Ahmed said it was an initiative to build design talent.
“We will start a design school in Tamil Nadu and later expand across India,” he said.
The collaboration aims to build world-class talent in design, creativity and innovation that will directly support India’s manufacturing and creative industries as they enter a new phase of global engagement under the recently-concluded India–European Union Free Trade Agreement (FTA), said a company statement.
