Buoyed by rapid growth in the retail industry, K Raheja Group-owned Shoppers Stop plans to open 24 stores in the country by FY14, a senior company official said.
“We plan to open 24 new stores in the next three years. To start with, we would be opening 8-9 Shoppers Stop stores in the current fiscal,” Group Chief Financial Officer CB Navalkar told PTI here.
Presently, the company has 38 stores across the country, with a total retail space of about 2.3 million square feet.
“The retail industry is growing by around 30-35% every year. We estimate that by FY14, we will have 62 stores operational with a total retail space of 3.6 million square feet. Apart from expanding in metros, we will also enter Tier-II cities,” he said.
Apart from the Shoppers Stop departmental stores, the company has five speciality retail formats like Home Stop (home furnishing), Mothercare (baby care), Crosswords (books & music), Estee Lauder (cosmetics) and Mac (cosmetics).
The company is also present in the hypermarket space at nine locations across the country through its 51% subsidiary-—Hypercity (food, grocery and general merchandise).
“We have already opened one Hypercity store in this fiscal year and expect to open another three by the end of FY’12. Similarly, in the home furnishing format, we have planned to open four stores by the end of March 2012,” Navalkar said.
On the source of funding for the expansion plans, he said, “We have already raised funds last year through a QIP issue. Apart from this, the cash generation in the company last year was around Rs 140 crore. If we have the same this year, it will be more than adequate to cover the expansion plan we have for all the formats.”
Source : Business Standard
