IndiaRetailBiz

Pantaloon Retail India, a Future group company, has grown at a much faster pace than some of its well known competitors. The credit for this in large measure goes to the vision of its founder and promoter Kishore Biyani, who is quick to acquire/ contract new space, and that too at lower rates, than its competitors in the retail sector.

For example, Rahejas-led Shopper’s Stop, which was relatively a bigger and more famous retailer than Pantaloon in 2001, despite being owned by a leading construction group, has not been able to keep pace since, with the growth of Pantaloon Retail.

While, Shopper’s Stop at Rs 204 crore (turnover) was 33 per cent higher than Pantaloon (Rs 150 crore) in 2001, today it’s less than one-sixth of the latter, in terms of both sales and size. Shopper’s Stop’s 2009 turnover of Rs 1,270.37 crore (Year ending March 31) is a mere 16.56 per cent of Pantaloon Retail’s 2009 turnover of Rs 7,669.40 crore (Year ending June 30).

This, among others, is a direct outcome of Pantaloon Retail multplying its retail space at a much faster rate than Shopper’s Stop. Against around 2.5 million sq ft of space occupied by Shopper’s Stop, Pantaloon is currently operating with more than five-fold space of around 13 million sq ft.

The importance of this can be gauged from the fact while most retailers in boom days of retail in 2007 were leasing space between Rs 60 and 80 (or more) per sq ft, Pantaloon was sitting pretty with large contracts at around Rs 30 per sq ft.

Pantaloon is again ahead in the race of signing new space contacts, while most of its competitors are still busy with consolidating/ rationalising their badly bruised operations.

Kishore Biyani, in a conference call, has revealed that he has already signed contracts for a whopping 20 to 22 million sq ft of new space This has to be seen in the context of Pantaloon Retail, currently occupying 13 million sq ft of space. The company is operating around 260 stores under several value and lifestyle brands.