Fashion apparel retailing major Globus Stores Pvt Ltd, a part of the $1.5 billion Rajan Raheja Group, is on an expansion mode. The company is planning to increase Globus stores? presence from 19 to 152 locations – spread across 70 cities by 2012 – on a lease model. Vice-chairman Akshay Raheja told FE, ?We are planning to invest Rs 800 crore, which will be sourced from debt, equity and internal accruals. We hope to grow our real estate space from 2 lakh sq ft to 1.6 million sq ft by 2012. Besides, we are planning to start online sales for our apparels by launching a new e-commerce website soon.?
Globus plans to set up its fashion apparel retail stores in Ludhiana, Faridabad, Vashi (in Navi Mumbai), Nagpur, Vasant Kunj (in Delhi), Muradabad, Jamshedpur, Kolkata, Pune and Jabalpur. According to Vinay Nadkarni, CEO, Globus, ?While the rental prices in Tier I cities is 65% of the total sales, it is 45% less in Tier II cities and even lesser at 35% in Tier III cities. As part of an emerging trend, the rental prices in these locations are expected to rise further and hence it is the right time to focus on Tier II and Tier III cities for expansion.?
Besides, Globus Stores is planning to foray into retailing of new product categories such as footwear and sunglasses, which will be retailed under ?Globus? private label brand through our stores. ?We are currently in talks with third party manufacturers in order to enter into tie-ups for sourcing these products from them,? Nadkarni added.
The company has signed Bollywood actress Kareena Kapoor as a brand ambassador on a two-year contract. Raheja said, ?We will invest 6-7% of our overall sales turnover in launching new advertising campaigns. With our new expansion plans on the anvil, we hope to grow our topline from Rs 145 crore as on March 2007 to Rs 1,700 crore by the 2012 end.?