India may see over 4,000 modern retail outlets in about 50 lakh sq. ft in five years

New stores, new formats, new retail destinations, new… review of claims (various announcements made in last 70 days) by the companies in the business of retail says that next five years will see thousands of crore being pumped in to open over 4,000 modern retail outlets in about 50 lakh square feet of space across India.

It was about 70 days ago, when the companies winded up the financial year and started making announcements of their newly chalked-out plans. The retail news section, almost everyday, saw 2-3 retail companies (across all verticals and segments) announcing their top-line growth plans and claiming to open several outlets in the next 2-5 years.

For instance, the latest announcements include that of McDonald’s, which, today, said that it will open 40-60 new outlets every year, while Bata yesterday told Indiaretailing that it will open over 200 outlets in the next two years. Tracing backwards, two days ago it was Trent, the Tata’s retailing arm, that said it will open in 37 tier II and III cities across India, while Adidas proclaimed tthat it will take its total outlets count to 450. When RPG announced Rs 1,000 crore expansions, the Future Group promised 110 more Big Bazaars across the country. April also saw a few promising entrants like Easy Day stores from Bharti Retail, which under its undisclosed plans has lot many stores on offer. Some premium brands including Debenhams, Aldo, Mango, and Nine West along with their luxury counterparts like Armani, Gucci and Louis Vuitton, have a lot of new stores on the cards.

If all planned stores from all retail companies and the expected space that they’ll occupy are totalled, it indicates that India will see about 4,000 outlets in 50 lakh square feet in next five years. How many claims turn into reality remains a matter of wait and watch.

– By Ranjan Kaplish and Satrajit Sen

To know who said what and when, Indiaretailing scanned its news section and traced promising plans of retail majors, given below are some of those plans that made news.

» MCC to expand retail network

» Speciality Group to expand its restaurants chain

» Three new outlets from Namdhari’s

» Papa John’s to expand network

» Odyssey on major expansion spree

» Provogue to bring foreign brands; raising capital to expand

» More Devil’s Workshops from Rasna

» Gilma to expand network

» ITC plans Rs 15K crore expansions

» Hakim Aalim expanding network of style lounges

» Shopper’s to double stores; unveils new logo

» Gas expanding retail presence in India