The final session of the second day of East India Retail Summit 2012, discussed the untapped potential of the tier II markets and their viability to be rightly called as the next shopping destination.
The session titled "Retail Mall Spaces: National Retailers Meet Regional Retail Space Developers" started with a condolence message for Lt. Hari Narayan Shah, Founder, Moustache by Piyali Oberoi, Regional Head, Kolkata Bureau, Images Group.
Participating in the brain-storming discussion on tier II markets, Vineet Gautam, Country Head, Bestseller revealed the company’s future plans to make a headway in the tier II markets. “We prefer malls over high street, as we are a youth-centric brand. Our minimum store size is 1,500 sq.ft. depending on the demand of the market. We increase the size of the store as and how the market demands. In some of the tier II towns we underestimated the market’s potential and opened store sizes of 2,500 sq.ft. but now we have realized such markets are ready for bigger formats.” Gautam adds that the company aims to open 1,000 outlets by 2015.
Talking from the retail real estate angle, Pramod Diwedi, Head Marketing, Bengal Ambuja, said: “When euphoria of retail was happening mall developers wanted to go to every possible city but when recession struck we had to contract the size of our malls. However, having said so we have learnt opening mall formats that a particular town can handle is the profitable way out.
Other panelists of the session included Manish Gujral, CMD, Motimahal; Vishal Kapoor, PVR; Anant Daga, CEO, W; Satyam Sanghvi, Director, Merlin Group; Vineet Gautam, Country Head, Bestseller; Pramod Diwedi, Head Marketing, Bengal Ambuja; Kumar Nitesh, VP, Retail Head, Bata; and Subir Das, COO, Avani Riverside Mall.
-Vasantasena Biswas and Shubhra Saini
