Pune gets the first look. British fashion and lifestyle retailer NEXT has quietly made its offline India debut with a flagship store at The Pavillion Mall, Pune, as part of its newly inked partnership with Myntra. This is a soft launch—the formal unveiling is scheduled for September, when senior leaders from NEXT and Myntra will make detailed announcements on the brand’s India roadmap.
The move signals the start of a carefully designed omni-channel strategy: a handful of large-format flagship stores across key metros, paired with the digital scale of Myntra’s platform to give NEXT national reach.
The Partnership: Franchise + Digital Scale
In early 2024, Myntra secured the exclusive franchise and distribution rights for NEXT in India. The plan is to open 8–10 flagship stores over the next two years in top cities including Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Pune. Alongside, the brand’s online presence on Myntra—already showing promising traction—is being scaled aggressively.
Unlike some earlier global fashion entries that relied heavily on either physical stores or pure online listings, this arrangement is explicitly “brand-first, omnichannel”. NEXT’s offline flagship rollout will establish experiential anchors, while Myntra’s app ensures wide discovery, testing demand across geographies, size curves, and seasons before new stores are added.
Why It Matters: A Global Retail Engine
NEXT arrives in India with rare balance among international fashion entrants:
- A profitable core business in the UK.
- Growing international sales that contribute significantly to group revenues.
- A robust e-commerce arm that has been central to its growth story.
For FY2024/25 (year ending January 2025), NEXT crossed £1 billion in pre-tax profit for the first time, an inflection point that strengthens its ability to fund selective international bets such as India. Company reports and Q1 FY2025/26 updates highlight not only resilience in its UK retail base but also the rising share of online and overseas revenues—a backdrop that makes India a natural near-term expansion priority.
The India Playbook
Positioning: NEXT occupies the accessible premium space—British styling, family-wide assortment (men, women, kids), and quality cues, priced above mass fashion but below luxury. This squarely addresses India’s fastest growing consumer pool: urban mass-affluent households who are trading up but remain value-conscious.
Format: The rollout hinges on flagship-first brand building: a few marquee stores in destination malls to codify brand experience, while Myntra drives nationwide discovery and sales. This hybrid reduces the heavy upfront risk that tripped some earlier entrants.
Merchandise: The full UK-led assortment—menswear, womenswear, and kidswear—anchors the rollout. NEXT’s proven strategy of wardrobe staples plus seasonal refreshes is well-suited to India, provided fabrics and fits are adapted for local climates. The digital + offline integration is crucial for depth in sizes, replenishment speed, and regional assortment tweaks.
Competitive Landscape
NEXT’s entry sharpens India’s mid-premium fashion battleground:
- Zara (Inditex-Trent JV): 22 stores across ~13 cities (as of June 2025), generating ~₹2,782–2,839 crore in FY25 revenues. While store count dipped slightly, the JV is investing heavily in experience and technology to counter slower same-store growth.
- H&M: ~66 stores across India (mid-2025), continuing expansion even as the group optimises globally. Recent openings in Faridabad underscore H&M’s metro + Tier 2 ambitions.
- UNIQLO (Fast Retailing): 17 stores since its 2019 India entry, with an explicit ambition to reach ₹1,000 crore in India sales by FY25. Increased local sourcing is part of the growth plan.
- NEXT (via Myntra): 8–10 flagship stores planned in 2 years; online sales on Myntra reportedly doubled within the brand’s first year of e-commerce presence in India.
This positions NEXT’s strategy as a lower-risk, high-scale hybrid: fewer stores than H&M or Zara, but a deeper digital engine from day one.
What to Watch
1. Store Cadence – How quickly the 8–10 flagship stores open, and whether they cluster in high-footfall metro malls.
2. Digital Velocity – Myntra’s ability to expand NEXT’s catalogue, size depth, and service levels to Tier-1 and Tier-2 consumers.
3. Assortment Localisation – Early traction is expected in denim, kidswear, and daywear; the real test is whether NEXT can tweak climate- and culture-specific needs without diluting its British DNA.
NEXT’s India debut is measured, strategic, and omnichannel by design. Unlike many foreign entrants who misjudged scale or format, NEXT has chosen a partnership model with Myntra that combines flagship impact with digital distribution muscle.
The Pune flagship is only the opening move. The formal launch in September—with NEXT and Myntra leaders outlining strategy—will set the stage for how the brand intends to build in India’s competitive fashion market. The real race is not simply opening stores but converting online momentum into a sustainable, profitable fleet of destination flagships.
