New store additions dropped by over 13% in April 2024
IndiaRetailing Insights: Retail store launches in April 2024 dropped by around 13% to over 67 new stores opened in the first month of the financial year (FY) 2024-25 according to the data compiled by IndiaRetailing Insights, a retail intelligence unit.
This is in comparison to over 76 new stores launched in March 2024—the last month of the previous financial year.
IndiaRetailing had earlier reported that store launches in the last quarter of FY 2023-24 stood at over 215 new stores launched with the east witnessing almost double growth.
Region-wise
With over 25 new stores opening in the region, West topped the store launches in the country, the region also saw a slight increase of around 8 % as compared to the 23 stores opened in March.
The north region which has been faring well at all times in terms of new additions has this time witnessed a drop of over 60% as compared to the 26 new openings in March to only 16 in April.
Other regions like East saw the addition of stores in the range of 1-5 which has been a constant growth in the region since the last couple of months. South India saw an increase of around 30% to 21 stores as compared to 16 in March.
The newly opened stores are in cities like Bengaluru, Mumbai Jabalpur, Kolkata, New Delhi, Vadodara, Pune, Hyderabad, Panvel, Banaswadi, Nagpur, Noida, Mohali, Ajmer, Vijayawada, Kochi, Chennai, Surat, Calicut, Ahmedabad, Siliguri and Nashik.
One trend that has been observed in the last couple of months is that Malls in India are preferred as the most common destination among retailers and brands to open new stores. This was evident in the recent data of April where over 30 new stores opened in different malls of the city as compared to standalone stores and other formats like Airports and Railway Stations.
Active brands
The brands that opened outlets in April include Levi’s, Reid & Taylor, Croma, The New Shop, and Purplle. Smartsters, Wow! Momo with Wow Kulfi, Birkenstock Group, Snitch, Meena Bazaar, LoveChild, Rareism, Hong’s Kitchen, 82°E, Tira, Pret A Manger, Yousta, Sleepyhead, Acer, Intune, TOD’s, The Raymond Shop, Azorte, Hamleys, JadeBlue, Style Up, 7-Eleven, United Colors of Benetton, H&M, Mokobara, Zudio, WestSide, Star Bazaar, Starbucks, Tasva, Superdry, Popeyes, Jiffi, Skechers, Lifestyle, Chanel, Dior, Kisna Diamond, Megamart, Fenesta, Nippon Paint, Kazo, Solitario.
An analysis of the data revealed that key players fared well in April 2024. For instance, beauty and personal care brand 82°E by Bollywood actress Deepika Padukone has opened over five new stores, followed by Reliance Retail’s coffee chain Pret A Manger, Tata-owned fashion and lifestyle brand Westside with four stores each, Levi’s, Reid & Taylor, Tira, Yousta, The Raymond Shop, Azorte, Style Up, Starbucks with two stores each.
Key Developments
Some notable developments in April include French luxury brands Chanel and Dior entering Noida. In addition to this, Bengaluru-based athleisure start-up Agilitas Sports announced plans to open 200 Lotto-branded standalone stores in India with a target of around Rs 2,000-3,000 crore from the business.
Similarly, Kozhikode-based Malabar Gold & Diamonds announced plans to open 100 new stores by 2025 and Value retail chain V2 Retail announced opening 35-40 new stores with an investment of around Rs 90-100 crore.
Other notable developments include food-tech platform Ghost Kitchens acquiring Ahmedabad-based cloud kitchen firm Shy Tiger Brands, PepsiCo India’s plan to invest Rs 1,266 crore to set up a flavour manufacturing facility at Ujjain, personal care company Honasa Consumer Ltd., the holding company of Mamaearth, announcing its latest venture called Staze, a colour cosmetics brand and leading QSR chain Wow! Momo forays into Kulfi with its new brand, Wow Kulfi.
On the shopping centre side, realty major DLF started constructing its new 26-27 lakh sq. ft. shopping mall in Gurugram at around Rs 2,200 crore.
Fund raises
In April, several D2C brands and other retail players like QSR chain Wow! Momo, logistics intelligence platform Clickpost, kidswear brand Includ, and supply chain company MatchLog Solutions have raised capital totalling over Rs 144 crore from venture capitalists and private equity firms like Z3Partners, Inflexor Ventures partners, Athera Venture Partners, Incubate Fund Asia, Escape Velocity, Abhishek Goyal (co-founder, Tracxn), the IIM Indore Alumni Angel Fund, Motion Ventures, July Ventures, Venture Catalysts, Blue Ashva Capital, and Capital A.
The analysis is based on the data compiled by IndiaRetailing reports, company information via press releases and social media and other information shared by retail experts and officials.
