Corner Bookstore opens first outlet in Gujarat

The Corner Bookstore Company Pvt Ltd (CBC), a retailer of books, today opened its first outlet in Gujarat here.

The company has 28 outlets in India at present and plans to raise this to 100 outlets by the end of 2005 and 500 in the next five years.

Interestingly, the Ahmedabad outlet, located over 500 square yards at Natarani, in the Usmanpura area of the city, is made completely of stones and industrial waste. Company officials said it is the most unique Corner Bookstore outlets.

Of the 27 other outlets, 14 are in premises of the Barista coffee shop chain, while 13 are on a stand alone basis. This is because CBS has entered into an agreement with Barista, where around 100 to 500 square feet of space is given to Corner Bookstore in the coffee outlets.

"Since opening our first outlet in 2003, Corner Bookstore has added several locations. We intend to adopt an aggressive expansion strategy to reach 100 outlets by the end of 2005 and at least 500 outlets by the next five years," said Aalok Wadhwa, CEO, Corner Bookstore Company Pvt Ltd.

Currently located at Delhi, Gurgaon, Bangalore, Mumbai, Pune, Indore, Chandigarh, Chennai, Kolkata, Jaipur, Colombo and Ahmedabad, CBS aims to enter smaller cities to spread its reach. "Stores at Vadodara and Surat will be the next in Gujarat," Wadhwa said.

The CBS CEO said that most stores do a business of around Rs two lakh a month and become profitable within three months of being set up.

"Over 70 per cent of the stores become profitable within the first three months of being set up, while over 10 per cent become profitable within six months. But we have been quick to shut down four stores that did not seem to reach profitability," he said.

Although the chain of book stores sells only books at present, CBS has tied up with Music World, where both can use each others' space.

"We will thus get into Music World stores, while they will use our space to sell their products," Wadhwa said.