INDIA BUSINESS WORLD - March 16th - March 31st - 2008
NETHERLANDS BASED PEARLE EUROPE TO FORM JV WITH RELIANCE FOR OPTICALS RETAIL
The Netherlands based Pearle Europe, part of international investment major HAL Group, is getting into a 50:50 joint venture partnership with Reliance Retail to sell optical products under the Vision Express brand. The new company would be called Abcus Retail Pvt Ltd and the Pearle Europe has already approached the Indian government seeking permission to invest in the Indian company. This is the second JV signed by Reliance Retail, the first one being with Citibank for consumer finance.
In keeping with government regulations, which allow foreign companies to invest up to 51% in Indian companies provided they sell goods under a single brand, Pearle plans to sell all kinds of eyewear products — from lenses, spectacle to sunglasses and cleaning solutions — under the Vision Express brand. These will be sold through Vision Express stores located at Reliance Hypermarkets, Reliance Health & Wellness stores and Reliance Retail department stores.
The Indian subsidiary of Pearle Europe will license to Abcus Retail the Vision Express logo, along with knowhow necessary for the operations of the optical retail business. The royalty for the licence will not exceed 5% of Abcus’ net sales. Pearle Europe has proposed to pump in close to Rs 10 crore in the JV over five years.
Pearl Europe is part of the Hal Group which is an international investment group based in the Netherlands. It has an extensive international expertise in optical retailing operations and operates 2,200 optical retail stores in 21 countries across Europe and the Middle East. HAL Investments also owns a number of optical retail chains in emerging markets, such as China, Russia, Turkey and Brazil. HAL group is looking to expand its optical retail activities in India, which is one of the fastest growing markets in the world. The initial investment will be adjusted according to the commercial viability and requirements of the JV company.
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