Shoppers Stop, an Indian large-format department store chain, plans to invest Rs 220 crore for expansion in the next two-and-half years. Majority of the funds would be coming through internal accruals. According to the company officials, the slowdown on the real estate front and the resultant fall in the real estate prices have helped the expansion plans of the chain. Shoppers Stop signs up with real estate developers three to four years before opening a new store.
Talking about the expansion plans, Govind Shrikhande, Customer Care Associate and Managing Director, Shoppers Stop, said: “Our main focus is to expand our department store and hypermarket formats. However, we keep on expanding other formats as well. We are adding eight stores each in the department store format in next two years, Hypercity and Homestop will add two stores every year.”
Sharing his expectations from budget, he said that the implementation of goods and service tax (GST), roll back of excise duty on apparel and service tax elimination should be considered in this union budget.
Shoppers Stop has recently launched its second store in Gurgaon at Spaze i-Techpark, Sohna Road. This is the 9th Shoppers Stop store in Delhi-NCR and 51st in the country.
Speaking about the launch of the new store, Shrikhande said: “The continued patronage from our Delhi-NCR customers has greatly encouraged us to expand our presence in this region. We have now extended our bridge-to-luxury experience in Gurgaon with a 2nd store. With spacious interiors and a prolific variety of brands, we are certain that our customers will be delighted to have an additional fashion destination in this city.”
He further added: “We enjoy a large base of our loyalty programme, First Citizen members in Delhi-NCR. This new store will cater as a convenient fashion destination for our loyalty programme members who reside in the catchment.”
Shoppers Stop has 51 stores in 22 cities.
– Payal Kapoor
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