new delhi trouble looms over the luxury retail sector as consolidations are forcing brands to seek out new partners or close shop here iconic luxury brands versace and roberto cavalli are on the lookout for a new partner in india and french bridgetoluxury brand longchamp has shut shopthose in the know also said both luxury brands versace and cavalli which are run by pan masala barons of the chaurasia group that owns infinite luxury brands are looking for a new partner they have one store each in delhis dlf emporio malldelhibased bequest group that runs berluti tods and saint lauren is said to be in the running for partnership with cavalli however mails sent to the company did not elicit a response till the time of going to the press versaces global press office said no comment to a detailed email sent by et advt longchamp had four outlets which have all wound up it had originally announced six stores in india under a master franchise agreement with the company in 2016 tm lewin which had two stores is also in the process of shutting downaccording to two sources close to doit retail the company that runs longchamp has also decided to shelve plans to bring alexander mcqueen to india this year mcqueen was to have a monobrand store in dlfs chanakya mall in delhi for which letters of intent had been signedradha kapoor khanna founder of doit said we are reviewing our portfolio of brands and individual stores we will continue to operate brands and stores that are generating targeted revenues and margins high operating costs and soaring rentals are the bane of luxury retailers who have also noticed a 2025 reduction in footfalls rentals are killing us average rentals are upwards of rs 20 lakh in luxury malls diwali saw next to no business during these poor sales times and skyrocketing operating costs mall rentals are simply not justified said the founder of one luxury retail companyin such a situation a store like longchamp which was probably making just rs 6070 lakh a month cant survive they addedaccording to registrar of companies data from tofler infinite luxury reported a net profit of rs 29 crore in fy18 versus a net loss of rs 138 crore the year before doit creations recorded a widening net loss of rs 995 crore in 2018 versus rs 77 crore the year before whereas doit retail recorded a net loss of rs 726 crore in 2018 versus rs 343 crore the year before advt most luxury brands in india have a confused strategy observers said some luxury goods are sold at 3035 higher prices than anywhere else in the world collections are often a season old and consumers dont want that brands want to grow in india but their local partners only want return a on the capital theyve invested said nakul bajaj is the founder and ceo of darveys an online platform of luxury and premium designer productssales have not been promising