| Pantaloon and Kshitij had recently announced expansion of 51 malls in 29 cities across the country. |
| Kshitij CEO and MD Shishir Baijal said, "We are opening three malls in Vadodara and one in Ahmedabad, while the third one is already operational. We are also looking for space in Rajkot and Surat. The Vadodara malls will open by the middle of the year, while the Ahmedabad one will be ready by mid-2007. The number of malls coming up in Gujarat is among the highest in the country." |
| Of the four new malls opening in the state, the two in Vadodara and the Ahmedabad one are funded by Kshitij Venture Capital Fund. |
| Kshitij's equity commitment would be Rs 13 crore for the university road mall and Rs 17 crore for the other one in Sarabhai circle in Vadodara. For its new mall in Ahmedabad in satellite road, Kshitij has invested Rs 27.4 crore. The university mall in Vadodara will have a multiplex. |
| Gujarat is a vibrant market with huge potential, and Ahmedabad has seen tremendous retail growth in the last three years. The consumer in Gujarat has a high propensity to spend and is also value-conscious. |
| So, it is no wonder Big Bazaar store on satellite road saw a y-o-y growth of 35 per cent in footfalls and a rise of 36 per cent in spending, while Big Bazaar in Kankaria has seen a 30 per cent increase in footfalls and sales growth of 29 per cent, Baijal said. |
| Now, Vadodara is witnessing a similar trend. The work population ratio (WPR) in the city is high, with 60 per cent of the people employed in the tertiary sector, and a large part of the consumer base falls in the high income group. |
| Vadodara is rated the seventh among the top 10 towns for car ownership and the third for consumer durables. It also has the highest per capita spending in FMCG products estimated at Rs 2,816, he added. |
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