Bombay Swadeshi Store to set up more outlets
Bombay Swadeshi Store, the gift and home retail chain, which sells under the brand of ‘The Bombay Store’, is planning to set up 16 stores by FY 2012. It is looking at upcoming new airports in the country for locating some of the new stores. The company currently has 11 stores in the country and is looking to set up outlets in Mumbai, Bangalore, Aurangabad, Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai, Indore, Chandigarh and Udaipur. A majority of its clientele consists of those who purchase Indian artefact and home accessories as gifts. Signage companies looking for new room to exploit will find Bombay Swadheshi Store a right spot for new business.
Sears Knit that makes jackets for Arrow and Raymonds recently opened the first retail outlet of its own titled ‘Lure’ brand at the God Souk Grande mall in Ludhiana. So did 42 other local brands including better-known ones such as Octave, Monte Carlo, Bluemount and Madame as traditional contract manufacturers from the century-old hosiery and knitwear hub have come together to build a common platform for brand Ludhiana. The company will open its Delhi chapter next month at Wedding Souk at Pitam Pura with 25,000 square feet of retail space, to be followed by a 15,000 sq ft unit in Jaipur. Its Ludhiana outlet is spread across 40,000 sq ft. The expansion move of Sears Knit will be a golden opportunity for signage companies, particularly in-store media majors and sign suppliers to find a new room to exploit.
Titan Industries Ltd launched North India’s largest showroom in Lucknow. The exclusive outlet spreading over 2,600 sq ft has a display capacity of 1,900 watches, including Titan products featuring Titan, Raga, Xylys, Fastrack and Sonata brands. Lucknow is a big market for us and people across North India visit the city for shopping. The company also has the license to market Tommy Hilfiger and Hugo Boss watches in the country. Currently Titan has 289 World of Titan stores pan India and almost 100 more would be added by the end of 2010-11 and it would surely be a big business opportunity for signage players like in-store media companies, print providers and sign suppliers.
InterfaceFLOR India Pvt Ltd, a global leader in modular commercial flooring, opens a new combined office and showroom in Mumbai. Located in the Prabhadevi Industrial Estate, this new office cum showroom will cater to the growing demand for the company’s innovative and sustainable carpet tiles. Spreading over 1350 sq ft, the new combined outlet has an open layout for optimal space utilisation and the use of uniform colour schemes ensuring that the central focus of the showroom is the fabulous designs. In other aspect, the new showroom would bring in a new business for the signage segment, giving new room to capture to in-store media comanies, print providers and others.
Aditya Birla Retail Limited (ABRL) aims to be an US$ 2.5-billion entity by 2017-18 with the opening of new stores, launching private labels and closing unviable stores, among other initiatives. The company will be opening 12 hypermarket stores every year at an investment of nearly Rs 18-crore per store, spreading across 55,000-75,000 sq ft. This year, the company’s stores will come up in cities like Delhi, Hyderabad, Surat, Pune and Nashik. Besides, it has also been planned to open 70-100 supermarket stores every year at an investment of nearly Rs 50-60-lakh per store of sizes 2,500-2,800 sq ft pan-India. Such mega expansion plan of the company will be a golden opportunity for in-store signage companies as well as sign suppliers all over India.
Gitanjali Group has announced that the company in the next two years will be buoyed by a 50 percent increase in retail space to 15 lakh sq ft across India. Currently, the group has around 3,000 retail outlets in India on a total area of 10 lakh sq ft. The expansion of retail space will help the company reach a target of Rs 10,000 crore revenue in the said period. Apart from diamonds and gold jewellery, the group has presence in areas like retail and lifestyle and infrastructure, under which it plans to build seven Special Economic Zones. Expansion of retail space will surely bring in a new opportunity to the signage players viz. in-store media companies and sign suppliers.
Havells India Ltd has opened its first exclusive showroom ‘Havells Galaxy’ at Adda, Hoshiarpur. Following its brand philosophy of powering lives, this is yet another initiative by Havells, targeted at end-users, architects and consultants, to showcase Havells products. With the urban culture rising, people like to buy from specialised stores and Havells Galaxy caters to this rising need of the customers by providing a one-stop-shop for their entire electrical needs. Opening of the executive showroom is an unmatched opportunity to signage players, such as in-store media players and signage suppliers.
Food and beverages major PepsiCo India is planning to unveil its own café outlets in New Delhi and four other cities by the end of 2010. The company has launched the first such café ‘Smart Choice’ in Chennai to promote its key category, the health segment, which was marketed under the name ‘Snack Smart’. The café is offering a range of choices for consumers—recipes like Quaker muffins, Quaker Idly (made from Quaker oats, a PepsiCo product). In fact, apart from being a corner to treat our taste buds, the cafes will be one of the best spots to embark upon for signage players like in-store media companies and signage suppliers.
Marks & Spencer Group, one of the largest clothing retailers in the UK is eying India for its overseas business expansion. This London-based retailer gets about 10 percent of sales from outside of the UK and aims to increase that proportion to about 30 percent. The company’s international expansion will bring an overall new boost in the Indian retail segment where opening of the high-end Marks & Spencer stores is now in the pipeline and signage industry will find big opportunity to exploit.
Jotun Paints is planning to set up 80 retail stores in Kerala by 2011 to strengthen its retail footprint in the state. Kerala decorative paint market was estimated at Rs 600 cr and offered opportunities to expand production as well as distribution. Currently the company has 55 retail outlets in the state and will significantly add more over the next few months. Expansion of the retail stores in the state will be a new sunshine opportunity in the region’s signage industry.
Atlas Brands, which retails and distributes premium brands, announces that makers of leather goods and accessories Bulchee plans to ramp-up its store-network by adding 30 more outlets by March 2011. The expansion plan is mainly focusing on Tier I cities. Atlas Brands, a manufacturer and wholesaler in leather accessories, retails and distributes premium brands such as Bulchee, Louis Philippe, fashion brands like Allen Solly and Van Heusen and popular brands such as Ufficio and Peter England. As of now, the company has five brand outlets across Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore, which offer an unmatched opportunity to signage companies across the cities.