Piramyd Retail plans 117 TruMart outlets

Piramyd Retail, a venture of the Rs 3000 crore Piramal Group, plans to launch 117 TruMart stores in Mumbai and Pune by the end of financial year 2010. It is also eyeing a turnover of Rs 2000 crore.

At present, Piramyd is eyeing the Maharashtra market to launch independent TruMart outlets, which sell food, home and personal care (FHPC) products. However, the company would continue to launch TruMart, coupled with the Piramyd chain of department stores in other parts of India.

The company has identified 25 clusters where two or three TruMart Dailies with floor space of 1500 to 2000 sq ft will supplement the flagship store with floor space of 6000 sq ft to 8000 square feet.

Piramyd also plans to launch 15 department stores by the end of the year 2008 and 11 other accumulating 27 stores by the end of year 2010. The company has assigned a project of survey to A C Neilson for Chandigarh,

Lucknow, Vadodara and Surat for further expansion of its chain.

"To develop network of TruMart outlets we have adopted hub and spokes approach where flagship outlets will sell the products that families buy for their future consumption including confectionery products and beverages while smaller outlets will sell products necessary for day to day consumption such as milk and bread. We have identified about 25 clusters where one flagship TruMart can be supplemented by two to three TruMart Dailys. Of the planned 117 TruMart, about 17 will be launched in Pune and rest in Mumbai in the areas identified the company to create clusters," said Nandan Piramal, director, PRL.

Piramal was in Ahmedabad for the inauguration of sixth Piramyd department store in India and first in Gujarat.

"We are positioning TruMart as the dependable neighbourhood store offering genuine value and the propositioning of chain is based on helping our customers live well ," said Krish Iyer, CEO, Retail Business Group, Piramal Enterprises.

Commenting on the investments for expansion plans, Piramal said: "We are planning to lease places and invest only where we are in a position to strike a favorable deal. However, we would like to construct our own properties for Piramyd to show our commitment towards the markets where we are expanding. To meet our goals of expansion we are seriously considering an option of raising money from the capital market."

Meanwhile, Piramyd is planning to launch private labels in FHPC and lifestyle segment. "We will launch our own labels in tie ups with national and international manufacturers in the fields of FHPC and lifestyle products. The private labels will be launched once we will have a number of stores to economise the scale," said Iyer.