As a commencement of a major retail expansion strategy, Gitanjali Group acquired a 76% stake in Salasar Retail Ltd, a chain of mid-sized department stores across India. Gitanjali plans to relaunch the Salasar chain as “Maya by Gitanjali Lifestyle” and offer jewellery and different lifestyle products.
Salasar has ten stores in northern India, with 200,000 sq ft of the area under operation. With this move, Gitanjali will gain access to prime catchment areas of cities like Delhi, Cuttack, Kanpur, Gwalior, Guwahati, Indore and others through stores with an area of 20,000 sq ft each.
Maya stores will also be opened in other parts of the country. The company expects an additional turnover of about Rs. 1,000 crores from “Maya” stores over the next three years, with major component of about 60-70% coming from jewellery sales. Elaborating on the Group’s overall expansion strategy, Mehul Choksi, CMD, Gitanjali Group, said, “This acquisition is a part of the company’s plans to greatly increase its retail footprint and firmly position its jewellery retail operations within the larger luxury-lifestyle space.”
The company plans to increase the retail footprint by an additional 1.25 to 1.50 mn sq feet of retail space by FY 2010-11 with the focus on revenue sharing model and prime catchment areas. Gitanjali has already partnered with various leading mall developers under the revenue sharing model. Retail expansion will be in EBO, MBO and Large Multi Format Store categories.
Gitanjali has brands such as ‘D’Damas’, ‘Asmi’, ‘Sangini’, ‘Nakshatra’, ‘Gili’, etc and sells its products in India through its vast network of 1,250 outlets including outlets in host stores. The company has more than 5,00,000 sq.ft of retail space and is planning to increase it up to 1.5 mn sq. ft within the next three years. Additionally, the company operates 143 retail jewellery stores located across the United States through the acquisitions of Samuels Jewelers and Roger Jewelers.
