Giordano delays launch on real estate crunch

International apparel retailer Giordano International said the launch of its new stores in the country would be deferred by a couple of months due to real estate constraints.

"We had booked 25 properties in various malls across the country, which were supposed to open by the year-end. But, these malls are yet to come up," said Giordano International Chairman Peter Lau.

Giordano International-owned Giordano Fashions has two stores in Chennai and one in Hyderabad.

Lau said Giordano would invest substantially in all the major cities in India over the next couple of years.

"We want to open at least 20 to 25 stores in the country in the next three years. But given the constraints on real estate, we are facing difficulties," said Lau.

Its new stores will come up in Mumbai, Hyderabad, Pune, Bangalore, Chennai and New Delhi.

"We have 800 stores in China. I am sure India will also have some very good growth opportunities for Giordano," said Lau.

"We are looking at different formats because of real estate problems, due to which we cannot make additional investments in stores, people and infrastructure," said Ishwar Chugani, the executive director of Giordano Fashions.

Giordano has plans to launch new format stores called 'Giordano Concept', which will be in the range of 2,000 to 5,000 sq ft. Its present stores are in the size of 1,500 sq ft. "We will also introduce more European fashion in our apparels," said Lau.

The prices of products at the new stores would be 30 to 50 per cent higher than the current Giordano stores, he said.

Although Giordano sources its merchandise from India, it was yet to find quality manufacturers here, he added.

"We have a representative office in India for the past couple of years. We have also exported a small quantity of manufactured apparel to other countries, but we don't see a good base of quality manufacturers here,'' he says.

Headquartered in Hong Kong, Giordano has operations spread across Asia, West Asia, Australia and Europe. Giordano Fashions is the exclusive distributor in India and the first store came up in May 2006.