Shoppers' Stop to roll out two more retail formats

Buoyed by the recent success of initial public offering, Shoppers' Stop Ltd is all set to roll out two retail formats in addition to its Crossword and Shoppers Stop brands.

The company plans to enter home furnishing through 'Home Store' and food retailing through 'Hyper City'.

"To open our first Home Store, we are refurbishing our old premises in Bangalore on Magrath Road," said Ajit Joshi, customer care associate and vice-president-operations, Shoppers' Stop.

"In the process, Shoppers' Stop plans to create a brand in the organised home furnishings market," said Joshi.

The store is likely to be opened in September 2005 and based on the success of this format it, will be rolled out into other cities by next year, he added.

Seeing the background of the promoters, the Home Store is likely to eventually go beyond home furnishing and provide home improvement solutions like painting, designing interiors and providing architecture support to corporates and individuals.

Hyper City, on the other hand is a large format store with over 50,000 sq feet handling food and grocery on an exclusive basis.

This format is being experimented for the first time as till now there is only a combined store, of Shoppers Stop plus Hyper City, in Ahmedabad with a retail area of 70,000 sq feet, said Joshi.

The company is also chalking out plans for the Hyper City roll out targeting metros followed by smaller towns.

Meanwhile, the company, in addition to its stores on Bannerghatta Road, Garuda Mall and the standalone one on Magrath Road, is eyeing Malleswaram and Indiranagar to set up new stores.

In addition to expansion in Bangalore, the company is opening two stores each in Ahmedabad and Delhi and one in Hyderabad.

After having its presence as a stand alone store for 10 years on Magrath Road, Shoppers' Stop on Thursday moved to Garuda Mall on the same road.

The 48,000 sq feet store at three levels has been created by Kingsmen International, Singapore, along with Edifice Architects.

The company's business has grown from one store in Mumbai in 1991 occupying an area of 2,800 sq feet to 18 stores occupying an aggregate area of over 752,000 sq feet. These are located in Mumbai (seven); two each in Delhi, Kolkata, Bangalore and Pune; and one each in Chennai, Jaipur and Gurgaon one each.