Shopper's Stop to invest Rs 350 cr in five year's period
Leading retail chain, Shopper's Stop, plans to invest Rs 350 crore to set up 32 new stores and up its pan-India network to 60 in the next five-years, a top company official said.
"We have drawn up investment plans of Rs 200 crore for adding 18 new stores with about three million square feet in the next three-years period," Shrikhande said.
The stores will be opened at Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Mangalore, Mysore, Aurangabad, Chandigarh and other Tier II cities, he said.
A further Rs 150 crore has been earmarked to add 14 more stores but plans for this are still in the preliminary stage, he said.
Presently, the retail chain has a network of 28 stores in 12 cities across the country occupying an aggregate area of over 1.88 million sq feet.
The company, which launched Europe's first denim brand, Mustang, in the city yesterday, plans to launch more foreign brands in the near future, the Shopper's Stop official said.
On its private labels business, Shrikhande said that its contribution to the company's sales this year so far has fallen to 17 per cent as against 20 per cent last year.
"The share of private labels has gone down to 17 per cent this year but we expect it to rise to 20 per cent next year," Shrikhande said, adding that the affordable foreign brands have a good scope in India.
Meanwhile, the company has decided to raise its stake in its hypermarket chain, Hypercity, from the present 19 per cent to 51 per cent.
"We have an option to increase our stake in Hypercity from the current 19 per cent to 51 per cent by June 2010 for Rs 250 crore. The proceeds would be raised through a rights issue and warrants," Shrikhande said.
The decision for the rights issue and warrants will be taken after the postal ballot results, Shrikhande said.
The price of warrants to promoters has been fixed at Rs 308, while the company will decide on pricing of the rights issue in the next few days, he said.
Hypercity has four stores presently in Mumbai, Vashi, Jaipur and Hyderabad.
"We have plans to add three more stores at Amritsar, Thane and Bangalore," Shrikhande said.
