Pantaloon plans new lifestyle brand

Pantaloon Retail (India) is planning to introduce a new format in lifestyle retailing under the brand, "Central", which would be stores of over one lakh square feet in size.

Speaking on the sidelines of the services seminar organised by the Bengal Chamber of Commerce & Industry (BCCI), Kishore Biyani, managing director Pantaloon Retail said, the first set of stores will come up in Bangalore and Hyderabad. Biyani however, refused to go into details about the new format.

The group's lifestyle retailing store under the brand "Pantaloons" typically has a retailing space of 20,000 square feet. At present, Pantaloon's retail initiative is under four brands- Pantaloons, Big Bazaar, Food Bazaar and Gold Bazaar.

Biyani said the company had set a target of Rs 1,000 crore turnover by 2005. Of this, Rs 450 crore will come from lifestyle retailing and balance from value.

While Pantaloons and Central were under the lifestyle retailing initiative, Big Bazaar and Food Bazaar were under value initiatives.

Biyanis said, food, grocery and tobacco accounted for $130 billion in India, while clothing was at $12 billion.

The company will also enter into retailing of investment products, white goods and appliances. The company would take its total retailing space from seven lakh square feet to 15 lakh square feet by 2005.Biyani said, investment over this period would be around Rs 150 crore, and will be a mix of debt and equity.

Addressing the seminar, he said the potential for retailing in India was huge given that the country had a high spending population with below 45 years accounting for 81 per cent of the population. Around 54 per cent were below 25 years of age.