Marks & Spencer to hire up to 300 people in India next fiscal

The UK-based retail giant Marks & Spencer is looking to hire up to 300 people in India next fiscal as it aims to open new stores across the country for maintaining around 20 per cent growth.
The company, which is present in India through a joint venture with Reliance Retail, is expecting robust contribution from online sales.
"Our all stores are company owned and all the staff are on our rolls. Currently, we have little over 1,300 employees and we are looking to hire 200-300 people next fiscal as per our plans to open new stores," Marks & Spencer Reliance India Head of Retail Mohit Bhayana told PTI here.

He declined to comment on the number of stores it is looking to open next year, but said, "on an average, we open 10-12 stores every year".
Bhayana said the company has opened 31 outlets across different places in the last three years.
Marks & Spencer will open new stores in Goa, Thrissur, Jalandhar and Delhi in coming months, he added.

When asked about the sales, Bhayana said: "In 2014-15, we achieved a growth of 23.1 per cent. We hope to maintain around 20 per cent growth in the next three years."
He, however, declined to share the British brand's sales revenue from its Indian operations.

"In the third quarter of current fiscal, our growth was 15.3 per cent... In the last five years, our CAGR has been 31 per cent," Bhayana said.
Talking about the online stores, he informed that the company has started selling its products through ecommerce sites like Myntra and Flipkart from October last year.
"These two sites account for huge portion of online clothing sales in India and we are present in their platform. So far we have received very good response and we hope to increase our sales in coming days," Bhayana said.
Out of the total online sales, 25 per cent is going to North Eastern locations, he added.

The company today launched the 'Spring 16' collection at its first store in Guwahati, which opened in January.
Marks & Spencer opened its first store in India in 2001 and had formed a joint venture with Reliance Retail in April 2008 to form Marks & Spencer Reliance India Pvt Ltd.
The company has 54 stores located in 24 cities, including Delhi, Amritsar, Mumbai, Pune, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Chennai, Kochi, Baroda, Kanpur, Hyderabad and Chandigarh.
Established in 1884, Marks & Spencer has over 870 stores in the UK and over 480 stores across 59 countries in Europe, the Middle East and Asia.