IndiaRetailBiz

After establishing Megamart (hypermarket) stores format, most of which occupy over 20,000 sqft of space each, Delhi-based Vishal Retail is now foraying into a new small franchisee-based store format, each store of which will occupy   1,000 to 3,000 sqft of space.

The group has planned to set up about 2,000 such small format stores in metro, tier II and tier III cities across the country by 2009-10.

“We launched our first small format store at Indore last week. We are now planning to have 250 such stores across the country by end of the current fiscal and then take the numbers to 2,000 by end of 2009-10,” said Ambeek Khemka Group President Vishal Retail, while talking about new format to PTI.

Vishal Retail is currently operating 137 mega-mart stores (hypermarkets)   occupying over 2.44 million sqft in 20 states across 89 cities in the country. During FY 2008, Vishal had a earned a net profit of Rs 40.6 crore against the total turnover of Rs 1,013 crore (up 67% over previous year).

When fully operational, the new small format stores will generate around 25% of the overall retail turnover.

“We are looking for a turnover of around Rs 180-200 crore from the new small format stores this fiscal,” added Khemka.

Within small format, there will be three product categories, each of which would carry a specific brand.

“The FMCG stores would be called ‘Vishal Daily Mart’, while the apparel stores would be known as ‘Vishal Fashion Mart’ and the durables and IT stores would be called ‘Vishal Technomart’,” said Dipankar Guha, Head (Franchise Operations), Vishal Retail.

While, entire marketing and branding campaign costing around two percent of topline will be undertaken by the franchiser Vishal Retail, most of the investments will be made by franchisee operators.