If you go by its sheer performance, there seems very little to worry about. Shoppers Stop has recorded a net profit of Rs 6.97 crore for the year ended March 31, 2008. The retail turnover in fiscal 2008 was close to Rs 1,207 crore, up 34%. As things stand, the K Raheja Group-promoted 17-year-old chain has 1.3 million sq ft of retail space across 24 stores in 11 cities in India.

Yet it wants to ?start something new?.

So earlier this month, the country?s pioneer retail chain changed its corporate look for the first time in two decades. This re-branding came after its research showed that customers in the 18-to-25-year age bracket, who frequented Shoppers Stop, didn?t really associate with the brand.

To reinforce its association with the youth, the company has launched a series of print and television commercials. While the TVCs encourage customer to try out something new, the print campaigns are quite tongue-in-cheek. And guess what, they also carry an environmental message.

The new logo, which takes forward Shoppers Stop?s black and white legacy, has been designed by Ray+Keshavan and the creatives have been executed by Contract

Advertising. Says BS Nagesh, managing director, Shoppers Stop, ?Our brand iconographic study revealed that the whole relationship of customers was with the name Shoppers Stop and its deliverables. And the biggest point of identification was the black and white colours and not the shape of logo.?

Alongside, the company will also launch an in-store FM radio station in association with Blue Frog, a sound lab and production house. The channel will have two radio jockeys and nine hour of programming. The radio station will play various genres of music including regional language chartbusters.

The jockeys have a bigger role than you anticipated: they will also dispense gyan on lifestyle and wellness. Shoppers Stop now has a company anthem?penned by Gulzar and rendered by Sonu Nigam?the music for which has been scored by Ram Sampat.

As part of this re-branding exercise all the employees of the company now have a new dress code and they have been specially trained to handle customers, who are more demanding now, with ease.

The spend on this exercise: a whopping Rs 20 crore.

So what led this premium lifestyle house to change its positioning and adopt a new corporate philosophy?

Gibson Vedamani, president, Retail Association of India, proffers an explanation: ?It is very important for companies to review their corporate identities with the changing times and the changing demographics of India. Today 55% of India?s population is below the age group of 25 and with emergence of sectors like BPO, today?s youngsters have access to higher income and they have become more trendy as a consumer class.?

Given that, it makes sense for Shoppers Stop to change its corporate outlook to catch up with the fast changing norms of the Rs 40,000 crore retail market in India. ?Shoppers Stop may be trying to bring in more of international departmental store shopping expertise to India,? adds Vedamani. ?The new corporate look suggests that it may also look at introducing international fashion trends and brands in India.?

Ashutosh Limaye, an analyst from Jones Lang LaSalle Meghraj, concurs. ?Over the years brands tend to lose their novelty value and boredom seeps in. Such re-branding exercises bring back the freshness.? Limaye believes the core principles of the Shoppers Stop strategy will remain the same. The value additions will be in the form of staff nurturing and grooming and, therefore, contemporary customers services.

If recent media reports are anything to go by, Shoppers Stop is working on launching new formats like boutique, high-end stores and outlets that serve smaller customer segments.

That would be a long way from the day Shoppers Stop started its journey in 1991 in Andheri, Mumbai, from inside a theatre. Mind you, Shoppers Stop has always been a fast learner. Starting as a men?s only ready-to-wear store spanning 2,850 square feet, the company expanded its store to cover 10,000 square feet in its very first year. At the end of 1992 Shoppers Stop introduced the women?s and children?s sections.

The next big step was when the company launched institutional sales in 1993. This involved taking up bulk orders from customers who were not the end users, like sales to corporate clients, sale of gift hampers and gift vouchers, dress kits etc.

By March 1994 the store had expanded across 50,000 square feet. The first international product that the company launched was a perfume brand, Drakkanoire.

Says Nagesh, ?The positioning of the company has always been upper end. Over the years, the ratio of small cars to big cars to Shoppers Stop (Andheri) has changed from 80:20 to 20:80.?

Govind Shrikhande, customer care associate and CEO Shoppers Stop, adds, ?We continue to grow our gross margins and shrinkage has been maintained below 0.5% levels, which is lower than the international benchmark.?

Like every other retailer in the country, Shoppers Stop is now focused on beefing up its distribution channel. It has created four distribution centres in the north, east, west and south of India that act hubs and through which any Shoppers Stop store can be serviced in 24 hours. ?We do not want change this structure,? says Nagesh, ?but we would like to introduce more innovation and technologies to it for faster supply.?

In the next one year, the company wants to focus on its e-commerce business, which will also include online sales. The company will test market it in Mumbai and Delhi and expand the service depending on the demand it generates. The company?s hypermarket HyperCity has already selling through catalogues, something Shoppers Stop would also like to incorporate.

Big is beautiful

Shoppers Stop plans to invest around Rs 1,500 crore over the next three years to double its outlets to 48, says the company. The company, which has filed a letter of offer with stock market regulator Sebi for its rights issue, expects to receive final observations by June.

As part of its expansion plans, he present 1.5 million sq ft area of operation of Shoppers Stop will touch 3.5 million sq ft. The per store area, currently about 40,000-45,000 sq ft, will also increase to around 75,000-85,000 sq feet, creating space for at least 50 new brands. In effect, Shoppers Stop is looking at bigger format stores.

The company will also widen its footprint. It will step into tier-II cities including Surat, Baroda, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Amritsar, Vijayawada and Mangalore. The focus, nonetheless, will remain on the premium category and luxury brands like Espirit, Mac, Tommy Hilfiger and Lancome.

Shoppers? Stop will invest Rs 150 crore to expand formats like Mothercare, Crossword Book Store and HomeStop, apart from the Rs 25 crore it plans to invest in its airport retailing venture with the Nuance Group AG.