Naidu Hall will go on expansion drive

Naidu Hall will go on expansion drive

Naidu Hall, the Chennai-based fashion and lifestyle retailer, plans to expand its retail presence under three branded formats – Naihaa, Feel Good Stores and Mermaid. The company also plans to create a new retail brand for the just-born under the name Bloopink. Last fiscal it registered a turnover of around Rs 60 crore. With the new stores, it hopes to cross Rs 150 crore during the current fiscal.

“At present, the expansion projects are funded by internal accruals and bank debts. But we are planning to rope in a private equity player for 20 per cent stake in the company by April next year. We are in talks with a couple of private equity players and hope to choose one soon,” R Aravind, managing director, Naidu Hall, told Indiaretailing.

Currently, the company runs eight Naihaa stores – six in Chennai, and one in Salem and Madurai each. There are plans to open seven more stores during this fiscal, with three in Chennai and one each in Coimbatore, Puducherry, Tiruchi and Erode.

Asked about the difference between each formats, Aravind informed: “Naihaa store sells branded garments for men, women and children, while Feel Good Stores retail cosmetics and synthetic fashion jewellery. The Mermaid is a multi-brand lingerie store.”

Naihaa stores are large-format stores with an average area of 12,000 square feet, while Feel Good Stores are shop-in-shops in Naihaa stores. FG Stores will see an addition of eight stores, all of which will be in the shop-in-shop format in Naihaa stores. The company is also in talks with Spencer’s Daily and Heritage Group’s Fresh@ stores to open FG stores in the shop-in-shop format. With two Mermaid stores already operational in Chennai, the company intends to open two new stores – one each in Chennai (Anna Nagar) and Bangalore.

According to Aravind, the stores, on an average, witness 15,000 footfalls a day with a more than 80 per cent conversion rate. To draw in more consumers, the company plans to have a coffee bar inside all the big-format stores and is in talks with Café Coffee Day for the purpose. Naidu Hall spends around Rs 3 crore to Rs 4 crore a year for marketing, and “it will grow with the turnover in the months to come.”

The company employs over 1,000 people and will recruit more for its new stores. Naidu Hall was established in the year 1939 as Bangalore Tailors.