Making best use of the available retail space, Croma has introduced its second Croma Zip – India’s ‘Small big electronics store’. The first Croma Zip store was launched at the Mumbai domestic airport and the second store opened its doors to the residents of south Mumbai.
Inaugurated at Horniman Circle, the store is spread across 3,000 square feet. Explaining the entry in south Mumbai with a small store format, Ajit Joshi, CEO and MD, Infiniti Retail, said, “This new concept reflects a fundamental transition that our industry is going through.”
“Given the pace of infrastructural developments including new clusters of residential areas and developing commercial areas, rising affluent population, changing lifestyle – there is a growing need for electronics stores. The zip format will help fuelling demand by the sheer presence in high footfall areas,” added Joshi.
The store offers customers a variety of electronic items including laptops, cell phones, PDAs, CDs, DVD players, cameras and travel-related gadgets among others.
“Despite the size being small, we expect these stores to draw new consumers to Croma and set the tone for aggressive expansion. This new format of zip stores will mark the beginning of the penetration strategy for Croma, both in existing cities and smaller towns,” added Joshi.
Further, the company also plans to set up around 32 stores by March 2009 and around 50 stores by March 2010. “We have set a target of 32 stores for March 2009 and 50 stores for March 2010. The total equity investment from Infiniti Retail Limited would be Rs 3.5 billion for building stores and other activities,” said Joshi.
— Zainab Morbiwala, Mumbai Bureau
