Landmark to beef up retail

The Dubai-based Landmark group will be investing Rs 450 crore in India over the next three years to increase its retail presence.

The group, which operates brands such as Lifestyle, Max and Home Centre in India, plans to extend its footprint to more cities.

Over the next three years, the number of Lifestyle stores, mostly a departmental store format, will go up from the existing 11 to 35, while Home Centre will go from two to ten in the same period.

Kabir Lumba, executive director, Lifestyle, said that they would be soon entering such cities as Pune, Jaipur and Noida in addition to increasing the number of stores they have in metro such as Mumbai.

Max, which is the group's hypermarket or value retail chain, will go up to eight by the end of this financial year from the existing two.

In addition to these brands, the group also holds the licences for Kappa, an Italian sportswear brand and Bossini, a casual wear brand in India.

At present, there are three Kappa and four Bossini outlets in the country which the company plans to ramp up over the next few years.

The number of Bossini outlets would be increased to 25 in this financial year, and 100 over the next five years. Lumba was tight-lipped about bringing other brands into India under similar licensing arrangement.

In the Gulf countries, the company operates different category brands Such as Splash, Shoe Mart, Lifestyle etc on a standalone basis which have been consolidated into the Lifestyle store in India.

Out of these, so far Home Centre is the only one which has being rolled out as a separate format. The company didn't rule out the possibility of introducing ShoeMart, the footwear brand, or Babyshop, the kids brand, as standalone stores.