MUMBAI: Sportswear major Nike, which has closed down 35 per cent of its stores in India, now plans to downsize further by letting 20 per cent of its staff go.
Several others working in the company’s Indian offices have been asked to join its operations in Southeast Asia, according to a Times of India report.
The report claims the move is part of a global restructuring process that will see the company focus on 12 key cities including New York, Shanghai, London, Tokyo, Paris and Mexico City to achieve 80 per cent of its projected growth by 2020. Not a single Indian city features on that list.
Nike has been active in India since 2005 and currently operates 200 stores here, but has not found the going easy. It also pulled out of cricket bat sponsorship deals in November 2016.
A Nike India spokesperson told TOI, “In June, we announced that as part of Nike’s move to align the company against the Consumer Direct Offence, a strategy that allows us to serve our consumers faster and more personally, there would be workforce reductions, and that has been the case in India. Our headquarters in India remain in Bangalore with two other offices in Delhi and Mumbai.”
