KICL in talks to buy iconic French footwear brand Kickers

Kothari Industrial Corporation Ltd. (KICL) is in talks to buy Kickers, the iconic French footwear and apparel brand, it’s Executive Chairman Jinnah Rafiq Ahmed said on Thursday (January 29, 2026).

The Kickers brand was brought to India by KICL in 2024 through a 30-year licensing and distribution agreement for the brand in India and eight neighbouring countries — Qatar, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Nepal, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, and Bangladesh.

As part of this expansion, Kickers has already opened and operationalised a store in Qatar.

“We have a lot of footwear manufacturing in India. But I don’t believe any Indian company own an international brand. So, small countries like Sweden and European countries own international brand for footwear. So, owning an international brand is very important,” Mr. Ahmed said while speaking at a briefing.

“We wanted to take Intellectual Property (IP) for Kickers. We are in talks, and hopefully there will be good news which we will announce very soon,” he said.

“Kickers is available all over the world and is manufactured in China. Once we acquire, we can get the entire production facility in India,” Mr. Ahmed added.

In the non-leather footwear sector, KICL has partnered with Taiwan-based Evervan – Shoe Town Group, which is the third largest contract manufacturing group manufacturing for global brands such as Crocs, Adidas, Nike and the like. The joint venture is known as Phoenix Kothari Footwear Ltd.

The joint venture has set up a facility in Perambalur to manufacture Crocs brand, and now it has completed the facility in Karur to make Adidas shoe which would be inaugurated soon.

Mr. Ahmed also welcomed the finalisation of India-European Union Free Trade agreement (FTA). “We were facing a lot of challenges due to the U.S. tariffs. We were exporting 60% to the U.S.,” he said.

“The manufacturers were moving to Indonesia because it had an FTA with the U.S. and the EU. However, land and labour are expensive in Indonesia when compared to India. The EU trade deal brings a huge scope for India. We also hope the trade deal with the U.S. will be finalised soon,” Mr. Ahmed said.