Piramal plans 16 Piramyd Megastores in next 3 years

To cash in on the retail boom, Mumbai-based Piramal Holdings Ltd (PHL) has decided to invest over Rs 300 crore for setting up 16 departmental stores, named Piramyd Megastore, across the country in next three years.

At present, the company has three such departmental stores in Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur.

"Piramal has lots in store for its retail chain in 2005. The first in series is branching out across north India with an investment of Rs 220 crore. Piramyd Megastore, the in-house retail chain brand of PHL, will set up shop in Ludhiana and Ahmedabad by May and in Delhi by June this year. It will also put up two mega stores in Pune by October. Each Piramyd Megastore will be around 70,000-80,000 sq ft in size," Krish N Iyer, chief executive officer, Piramal Retail Business division told Business Standard.

Crossroads, which houses other retail formats such as Piramyd Megastore, Piramyd Supermarket and Jammin, the family recreation centre, is the mall format of Piramal Group.

"Delhi is a virgin market as there are no large format departmental stores except for Shoppers' Stop. We plan to exploit this potential by setting up three stores in Delhi by 2006," said Iyer.

The retail major is also on a signing spree. It has already signed up 11 properties, of which, five will be launched in 2005, four in 2006, and two in 2007.

The company is also eyeing five properties in Hyderabad, Gurgaon and Mumbai.