Shoppers' Stop zeroes in on niche retail formats

Retail major Shoppers' Stop is getting closer to its objective of having a presence in niche retail categories and formats.

B S Nagesh, chief operating officer and managing director, Shoppers' Stop, said the company would be opening its first home store 'Home Stop' in Bangalore next month. Apart from this, the hypermarket 'Hypercity' would also be ready by the end of this financial year.

Home Stop will be a one-stop home solutions store and would have products ranging from furnishings to crockery on offer.

Hypercity, which will be spread over 1,00,000 square feet of retail space, will open its first store in either Mumbai or Pune, depending on whichever gets ready first. The company plans to open eight such hypermarkets over the next two years.

The company already has a presence in books and music retailing through Crossword.

Speaking about moving into other areas, Nagesh said depending upon the specific situation, the company would either create a new brand, as in the case of Home Stop, or else enter into a tie-up with an existing brand, as was the case with Mothercare, the global brand for infants and children.

As per this deal, Shoppers' Stop will be opening 40 Mothercare outlets, which will cater to the fast-growing children's market, over the next five years.

Earlier this year, Shoppers' Stop entered into a similar tie-up with a cosmetics brand, MAC, to set up the latter's exclusive stores in the country, which gave the former a presence in the high-end beauty and cosmetics market.

At present, Shopper's Stop, which has Rs 511 crore revenue in 2004-05, has a network of 20 stores across 10 cities in India.