Landmark plans hypermarkets

The booming food retail industry in India seems to have inspired Dubai-based Landmark to hop on to the hypermarket wagon.

The group, which is known in Dubai for its Lifestyle departmental store, is currently studying the market for its food retail venture.

Kumar S, managing director, Lifestyle International told Business Standard some time back that the parent company Landmark is evaluating various possibilities for the location and branding for the proposed project.

Kumar also said that the hypermarket venture will not come under the fold Lifestyle International but will be floated as a separate company.

Lifestyle joins other retail biggies like Trent and Shopper' Stop who have recently announced similar plans to enter the food retail market.

Currently the hypermarket scene is dominated by the RPG group's Giant and Pantaloon Retail India's Big Bazaar.

Lifestyle started its Indian operations in 1999 and has seven stores presently. It will expand its presence to fourteen outlets by 2007. In India Lifestyle houses Splash""youth apparel brand, Home Centre""house decor, Baby Shop and Shoe Mart.

However in the middle-east these brands have been set up in the stand-alone format. Industry watchers say that this sudden flurry of activity in the sector is explained by the fact that food and beverage still constitute 52 per cent of the total consumer spend in organised retail sector.