Spencer's Retail readies Rs 400cr capex for South

Supermarket chain Spencer's Retail Limited has lined up a capital expenditure of Rs 400 crore for south during the current financial year.

The Rs 11,500-crore RPG Group firm would infuse the investments into enhancing its retail presence in the region, besides creating additional supply chain infrastructure and backend operations.

Speaking to Business Standard, Samar Singh Sheikhawat, vice-president (marketing) of Spencer's Retail, said the company would open at least 200 stores in the four southern states this year. Nationally, it plans to add 500 stores this year besides creating employability to around 10,000. "Of this, 4,000 people would be recruited in the south," he added.

In the next 10 days, the company would open 50 stores, of which 20 would be down south. These would come up in cities like Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam, Bangalore, Mysore, Dharwad, Chennai, Puducherry, Coimbatore, Kozhikode, Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi, on 1,000 sft to 25,000 sft each. The first store, a 15,000-sft 'Superstore', being set up on the Mosque Road in Bangalore, would be inaugurated on July 31.

Spencer's has five different formats "� Spencer's Fresh, Daily, Express, Superstore and Hypermarket. The company currently operates around 200 stores across these formats including a Hypermarket each in Hyderabad, Mumbai and the National Capital Region.

"Our emphasis on the south is primarily driven by low property rentals and consumer demographies that are in favour of the organised retail sector here," Sheikhawat said.

Stating that south accounted for 50 per cent of the company's turnover last year, he said the contribution would come down to 40 per cent by this fiscal end as other territories were growing. "Absolute sales, however, would increase substantially this year," he added.

Spencer's Retail is targeting a 20 per cent pie of the Rs 5,000-crore organised food and grocery market and expects its turnover to touch the Rs 1,000-crore mark this fiscal.