Shopper's Stop plans 40 stores in 4 yrs; may invest Rs 500 cr

This fiscal, the company will invest about Rs 180 crore for opening up to 12 departmental stores under the Shoppers Stop brand and four HyperCity hypermarkets. The retailer, which clocked a turnover of Rs 1,578 crore last fiscal, also said it expects sales to touch Rs 1,800 crore this financial year.

"In the next four years we hope to have total 60 Shopper's Stop outlets, including new cities," Shopper's Stop, Customer Care Associate and Managing Director Govind Shirkhande told reporters at the launch of a new store here. At present the company has 32 Shopper's Stop outlets.

"In this fiscal 10-12 new stores (Shoppers Stop) will be opened with a total investment of Rs 120 crore," he said. Each new Shoppers Stop store is expected to require an investment of Rs 10 crore.

In terms of retail space, he said the current 1.9 million square feet retail space for Shoppers Stop will go up to 3.5 million square feet in the next four years. The firm will also increase its HyperCity stores from seven at present by adding "3 to 4 stores every year".

Asked about investments on the HyperCity, he said: "An investment of around Rs 15 crore will go in each HyperCity." Currently, Shoppers Stop has operations in 13 cities across India. "In the next four years, we will have our presence in 25 cities," he said.

Commenting on the current market conditions, he said consumer sentiment has gone up and the retail sector has started seeing growth in same-store-sales after facing a dip in the last two years. Same-store-sales are the revenues from existing stores, not newly opened ones.

"The same-store-sales have started seeing growth. So with a combination of new store sales, we hope to grow at 20-25 per cent this year with an expected turnover of Rs 1,800 crore for this fiscal," Shirkande added.

Besides, Shopper's Stop and HyperCity, the company also operates other formats including shop-in-shop stores like HomeStop (home furnishing), Crossword (bookstores), M.A.C (cosmetics), Airport Retailing and Mothercare.

"Other formats will also see expansion going ahead," he said but did not share details. The firm is looking at tapping new geographies besides expanding into existing cities. The expansions will be funded through internal accruals. "At least for the next two years, the company does not require any outside funding. We will be able to generate sufficient cashflow," Shirkhande said.