Trent, the retailing arm of The Tata Group, has planned to take the franchise route to expand operations of its Westside stores across 37 tier II and III cities over the next five years.
Confirming this, Neeti Chopra, head (marketing), Trent, said: “The stores will be spread over an area of around 8,000-12,000 square feet and will be set up at an initial investment of around two crore rupees.”
According to Chopra, Westside has identified cities on the basis of investment potential of the business community, consumption trends and spending potential of the consumers.
The short-listed cities include Allahabad, Patna, Guwahati, Dehra Dun, Madurai, Kolhapur, Jammu, Bareilly, Aligarh, Cochin, Puducherry, Thiruvananthapuram and Salem.
The company has invited proposals from interested parties for these openings. “Due to high real estate prices and to enter new markets, we thought the franchisee route was more viable,” informed Chopra.
