LVMH Group’s yacht-building firm Princess has announced formal entry into India and is aiming to sell up to five luxury boats in the next year.

Smallest of these yachts cost INR40million ($790,000) while at the higher end, the price can go up to INR300million ($6,000,000).

“We will sell four to five yachts in the next 12 months,” Sharad Kachalia, a director at Navnit Marine, Princess International’s distributor for the country.

India’s luxury sales are expected to expand by a scorching 20 percent annually until 2015, as brand-smitten consumers snap up big names to flaunt their wealth.

Luxury sales were slow to take off in India a decade ago, disappointing retailers who had rushed into what they hoped would be the next China — a vast market of over a billion people with an eye for status symbols.

But now Indian consumers “are quickly catching up with global trends”, according to Neelesh Hundekari, author of the recent “Indian Luxury Review” report.

French luxury goods maker Hermes has launched a limited edition Indian sari range to “connect” with Indian culture as it target buyers in new markets.

Indian women may wear Western dress to the office during the day but for weddings and other formal occasions they often prefer to wear six-yard (five and a half metre) elegantly draped saris, reflecting the strong pull of tradition.

“This is part of our effort to connect to India’s culture and to the tradition of elegance of Indian women,” Bertrand Michaud, president of Hermes India, told AFP.