To supplement its presence in the retail store format, Bangalore-based Printo Document Services, one of the first organised retail ventures in the print and document services in the country is planning to enter the online space. The company is in talks with a few targets in the online photo space for acquisitions.
Printo has been predominantly present in South India with eight of its stores in Bangalore and one in Hyderabad. While it plans to extend its reach to other parts of the country, Manish Sharma, CEO of Printo, said there was a lot of interest from companies and individual consumers in places like Gurgaon and Delhi to launch their service online. Based on this, the company is planning to acquire an online photo venture for which it is in talks with a few companies from Bangalore and Mumbai.
“In India, the organised retail space for print and document services, would need a personal presence due to which we will continue to expand the number of stores. However, we find that there are many customers who would want to use the retail store to know more about the services offered and be able to order online at anytime of their choice. For such customers, we would like to be present online to add to our retail presence,” said Sharma. The company is looking to tap the Rs.17,000 crore unorganised market for print and document services in India
The company has not said how much it would invest on an aquisition, but it could either be a cash or a stock acquisition. “We will look at wrapping up the acquisition in the next six to nine months,” said Sharma. In 2007, the company received a $6.25 million funding from Sequoia Capital to help fund its retail expansion. Funding for the acquisition will come from internal accruals and the company is not looking to raise anymore funds at least till the next year.
Post-funding from Sequoia, the company was looking to set up 15-20 outlets by March-end 2010 but the economic turmoil made it cautious about its expansion. With the market looking up again, Printo has started launching outlets and will reach its target by December 2010. Founded in 2006, the company has a turnover of around Rs 8-10 crore and is expecting to touch Rs 40 crore in the next two years on the back of retail expansion and construction of a new production facility in Bangalore.