Sonakshi Sinha inaugurates New Balance flagship store in India

Noida, March 22 (IANS) Bollywood actress Sonakshi Sinha on Tuesday inaugurated the flagship store for American sportswear brand New Balance here.

The actress, who was seen sporting a grey T-shirt and black stonewashed jeans along with Darren Tucker, vice president, New Balance Asia Pacific, launched the 1100 square metre store with a customary ribbon cutting ceremony at the DLF Mall of India here.

"We are catering to Indians here... This is our entry into India. We (our price points) are starting from Rs.499 and going up to about Rs.15,000. We will go across to meet the needs of wider consumers," Stuart Henwood, country manager - Middle East, India and Korea, New Balance, told IANS.

The brand wants to focus on the Delhi-NCR region and then branch out to other metropolitan cities in the country.

"We wanted to focus on Delhi-NCR because our research shows us that this is where the most spot sales arrive in India. So we focus in Delhi and then branch out across the metropolitan cities like Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai and other areas," Henwood added.

New Balance's global cricket division sells cricket gear in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Britain. The brand is also the official cricket kit supplier of the South African team, besides being the individual sponsors of cricket stars like Dale Steyn, Ben Stokes, Joe Root and Mark Wood.

The sportswear brand is focused on running goods and provides fitness freaks with shoes, sport bras, t-shirts, bags, track pants, cricket kits and much more.

Talking about fitness, Sonakshi said: "I was a very unhealthy teenager... My fitness journey began before I became an actress and it is continuing till today. Right now I can tell you for sure that I am into it and in a much bigger way than I was before."

After the first outlet that was launched here, the brand will be branching out to the other Delhi-NCR outlets like the The Pacific Mall in West Delhi.