THS teams up with Ansals, Lifespring to open 6 hypermarkets

Our Marketing Bureau in New Delhi

The Home Stores (India) Ltd, home products and accessories retailer on Tuesday announced its alliance with Ansal Housing & Construction Ltd (AHCL) and Lifespring to open six hypermarkets in the country by 2003. Of these, three will be operational within the next two months in Delhi and its surrounding areas at Naraina, Vaishali and Faridabad.

The alliance has earmarked an investment of over Rs 400 crore over a period of six years and aims at providing a composite range of retail and wholesale services under one roof. The hypermarkets will be called “Metro Sabka Bazaar” an extension of Sabka Bazaar brand.

While the two partners - THS and AHCL - will have equal investment in the hypermarket stores which will be met through internal accruals only, Lifespring will only offer its range of products.

Announcing the alliance and the launch, Mr Arif Sheikh, president, THS, said that these hypermarkets are one of the first ventures in the country and would add to the existing retail offering such as Speciality Stores (The Home Stores), supermarkets (Sabka Bazaar) and concept stores such as Party Stores.

The hypermarket model is designed to generate revenues and delivery gains in terms of branding, merchandising, display, variety and choice for partners, consumers, retailers and government alike. Its time to generate greater operational flexibility and create a differentiation to face the global competition, he added.

Mr Sheikh expected the alliance to reach the break-even stage within one month of its operations. Speaking on the occasion, Mr Deepak Ansal, CMD, Ansals, said that the tie-up with THS and Lifespring is rightly timed and has the making of a revolutionising step.

According to Mr Mahesh Patel, director, Lifespring, the reason for Lifespring’s diversification clearly is to introduce a new concept to the people of India and expand its customer base, which is presently limited to a niche audience.

THS is a chain of stores established in 1997 by Home Store (India) Limited. Currently, it has five stores in Delhi, one each in Jaipur, Ludhiana, Chandigarh and Kolkata and two each in Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad.

Lifespring is a brand owned by Total Care Private Limited, which is the result of a tie-up between the Jatia group in India and the Australian-based Bodiam International which is involved in management and consultancy of supermarkets and drug stores.