With the Indian retail scenario in high gear and an influx of foreign direct investment likely in the sector, Shoppers Stop is gearing up to face rising competition with aggressive expansion plans. Govind Shrikhande, managing director of the K Raheja Corp promoted fashion retail chain, talks to FE?s Shreya Roy about how the company plans to ramp up presence with an investment of Rs 350 crore across markets over the next four years.
Shoppers Stop is currently looking at expanding its footprint nationally. What investments do you have lined up for this?
Shoppers Stop currently has a retail presence with 34 stores across 15 cities. In the next four years we will open an additional 26 stores taking our total tally to 60 stores and total area to 3.6 million sq feet, from the current two million square feet. The total investment across various formats would be approximately Rs 350 crore. Majority of this would come from internal cash flows.
Which markets do you see most growth coming from?
West and north India currently have most of our stores and hence maximum growth is coming out of these two regions. Availability of good quality space coming up in the south has made us look at aggressive expansions in the region. In the last financial year till date we have added four stores, two each in Hyderabad and Bengaluru. In the next two years we are looking at adding three more stores in Chennai. We are also looking at expanding our footprints to tier-II cities in the south namely Vijaywada, Mysore, Mangalore amongst others.
How are you planning to develop your brand mix and what kind of products will you be looking at introducing?
Exclusive brands will have a 20% share in the brand mix at Shoppers Stop. We currently have around 12 exclusive in-house brands and each has a signature offering- appealing to its customers.
The expansion, therefore, is more likely to happen by extending each of these brands to various categories to fill need gaps. For example, our Indian fusion wear brand Haute Curry extends from apparel to non-apparel into fashion jewelry, footwear and handbags.
You have launched international labels such as Austin Reed, Mothercare, and Mustang in the past. Are you currently looking at bringing in more such brands to the Indian market?
We constantly look at exclusive arrangements with premium and bridge-to-luxury international brands across categories. We are in talks with a few unique international brands but we can?t divulge names until the formalities are completed.
With the Indian retail space developing rapidly, what are some of the changes you expect to see going forward?
As the economy continues to grow well, the consumer spend in various categories will continue to rise. The offering by various formats will become sharper and only the best will survive. FDI opening will add to the variety, depth and width, and we expect competition to intensify further.