The Future Group is closing several stores of its electronic goods chain eZone and moving out of some cities altogether as part of a restructuring of the loss-making business.
Earlier this year, Pantaloon Retail, which owns eZone had, said the company plans to restructure the format including closing some stores and focusing on online sales.
Kishore Biyani, chief executive of the group, says the company is focusing on only six cities as part of a supply chain rationalisation. The company has operations in about 18 cities (including eZone outlets as part of larger Home Town stores), according to the Pantaloon website. ?It doesn?t make sense to maintain a supply chain in a city with only one store; so, we are focusing on some cities,? Biyani said.
He said eZone is exiting some smaller cities like Indore where the company runs three such stores. Nationwide, Pantaloon operates about three dozen standalone eZone stores and about two dozen shop-in-shops in other, larger formats.
However, the company is closing more eZone stores than Biyani admits, even in metro cities like the National Capital region. eZone has ?moved out of Delhi lock, stock and barrel,? says a person familiar with the development. On a recent weekend, the eZone store at V3S Mall in east Delhi wore a deserted look with empty shelves. Staff at the store said there are no more supplies as the store is going to close soon. They said other eZone stores in the city are closing too.
Some miles away, the eZone store at Shipra Mall in Indirapuram is shut and undergoing renovation to make way for an apparel outlet. Another source says the company is turning most eZone stores in the National Capital Region into apparel outlets.
Typically spread across 12,000-20,000 sq ft, eZone stores would stock a wide array of consumer electronics and durable items. The chain, along with the home products segment, reported negative same-store-growth while value retailing showed a significant increase in the same stores that existed for a year or more, according to Gautam Duggad, an analyst who tracks the company at Mumbai-based brokerage Prabhudas Lilladher. Duggad says the company is restructuring the business so that it can attract investors in the new format. ?Their plan is to close unviable stores, open smaller versions and expand it online,? Duggad says.