Retail chain Shopper's Stop plans to invest Rs 350 crore to set up 32 stores and augment its pan-India network, taking the total to 60 over the next five years, a top company official said.
"We have drawn up investment plans of Rs 200 crore for adding 18 new stores with about three million square feet in the next three-years period," President & CEO of Shopper's Stop Govind Shrikhande told PTI here.
The stores will be opened at Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Mysore, Mangalore, Aurangabad, Chandigarh and other Tier II cities, Shrikhande said.
A further Rs 150 crore has been earmarked to add 14 more stores but plans for this are still in the preliminary stage, he said.
At present, the retail chain has a network of 28 stores in 12 cities all across the country over an area of 1.88 million sq feet.
The company, launched Europe's first denim brand, Mustang in the city, plans to introduce more foreign brands in the near future, the official said.
On its private labels business, Shrikhande said that its contribution to the company's sales this year fell to 17 per cent against 20 per cent in the last year.
"The share of private labels has gone down to 17 per cent this year but we expect to raise it to 20 per cent by next year," Shrikhande said, adding that the affordable foreign brands have good scope in India.
Meanwhile, the company has also decided to raise its stake in hypermarket chain-- Hypercity, from the present 19 per cent to 51 per cent. At present, Hypercity has four stores in Mumbai, Vashi, Jaipur and Hyderabad.
"We have an option to increase our stake in Hypercity from the current 19 per cent to 51 per cent by June 2010 for Rs 250 crore. The plan is to add three more stores at Amritsar, Thane and Bangalore," Shrikhande said.
The proceeds would be raised through a rights issue and warrants.
"The decision for the rights issue and warrants will be taken after the postal ballot results. The price of warrants to promoters has been fixed at Rs 308, while the company will decide on pricing of the rights issue in the next few days," he added.