Pantaloon to up retail space

Pantaloon Retail India, the country's largest and only listed retailer, is planning to expand its retail space from the present 8,00,000 square feet to 2.2 million square feet by December 2005.

Pantaloon Managing Director Kishore Biyani said the company would invest Rs 150 crore to achieve the target.

Work is under way on Pantaloon's exclusive malls in Gurgaon, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Pune, which will showcase its brands like Big Bazar, Food Bazar and Pantaloon Fashions.

Each mall will have an area of nearly 150,000 square feet. Pantaloon's Big Bazar, a no-frills chain store that caters to price-sensitive customers, will be one of the company's thrust formats in the next few years.

Biyani is planning 16-17 Big Bazars by 2005. In National Capital Region, Pantaloon has just one Big Bazar store "" at Gurgaon.

By June, the company will have a Big Bazar and a Food Bazar at an upcoming mall in south Delhi.

"We operate like an advancing army that first captures the outskirts and then moves towards the city," he said.

On his plans for retailing grocery, Biyani said the company was taking a consolidated approach for the business wherein Food Bazars would be located close to Big Bazars.

Pantaloon's media venture TFH Entertainment, which produced Bollywood films such as Na Tum Jaano Na Hum and Chura Liya hai Tumne, has shelved its film-making plans.

"Movies were a way of promoting our retail brands. For the moment we are retired hurt from that business," said Biyani. TFH is now into Indi-pop music and video albums.