The Rs 12,000-crore Gitanjali Group, which receives 60 per cent of its total revenues from retail operations, is planning to add 25 more large-format, multi-brand franchisee stores in the current calendar year.
The company launched the largest-ever franchisee store, with over 12,000-sft space and 9,000 varieties of jewellery on offer, in Hyderabad on Saturday.
Gitanjali Jewellery Retail Private Limited managing director Santosh Srivastava said that the company was pushing more retail outlets in the franchisee mode as they help built trust for the brand among the customers on the back of a trusting local partner.
The company, which currently has 75 franchisee stores, account for 80 per cent of the company’s retail sales in the country, according to him. He said that the economic slowdown had no significant impact on its retail business as the purchase of jewellery was more to do with Indian tradition.
“We grew 70 per cent year-on-year and would continue to grow at this level in the next three to five years,” he told reporters. The company proposes to double the retail franchisee network in the country by 2015, Srivastava added.
Pankaj Doshi, managing director of Doshi Gems and Jewels Private Limited, who owns the newly-opened franchisee store, said he expected to post at least Rs 50-crore sales in the first year.