French sportswear and sporting goods business Decathlon plans to open 10 new brick-and-mortar stores in India each year moving forward as it sees the country as becoming increasingly important to its global business. 

Decathlon has an ambitious store expansion plan for India, ET Bureau reported. The business opened a new store in Chennai at the city’s Nexus Vijaya Mall in October last year and has a number of outlets in Indian malls. Decathlon currently counts 122 India stores spread across 19 states and operates an e-commerce store dedicated to the Indian market which features its menswear, womenswear, accessories, bicycles, and surf collection among other products. 
 
Decathlon is also focusing on sourcing more of its products in India. At present, around 60% of the goods that Decathlon sells in the country are manufactured domestically and the business is keen to increase this amount. 

“We want to get to 90% to 95%, if possible,” said Decathlon’s chief retail and countries officer Steve Dykes at a recent event in Paris, TNN reported. “India is already in the top 10 markets and we want it to get into the top five. I feel we are really on the right track at the moment. And let’s hope within the five years it will be in the top five.”