Ritu Wears to go pan-India expansion
Delhi-based lifestyle fashion brand Ritu Wears announces that it will invest around Rs 230 crore over the next four years as part of its plan to expand pan-India by opening 33 large-format stores. The company is going aggressive with home category portfolio, and will focus more on the toys and books segment in its outlets. Beyond North India, their sight is set on other regions, such as Indore, Jaipur and Bhopal. In this big way expansion, opportunity will also be for signage sector benefiting largely signage suppliers and in-store media companies.
Tata Group’s Trent Hypermarket plans to scale up its Star Bazaar stores to 18 by the end of FY 2011. The company will be opening 7-9 stores by the end of next fiscal and two by March-end. The investment per store would be Rs 7-crore. As of now, Trent operates seven Star Bazaar stores and the new stores will come up at Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore and Ahmedabad. Voila! It would be a sunshine opportunity for every signage player surfacing across the in-store segment.
Enthused by good sales in the past few months, Reliance Retail Lifestyle is planning to increase the number of Reliance Jewels outlets to 100 by 2013. The company has plan to add 14 more by this fiscal-end to its existing 10 outlets of Reliance Jewels, which sells gold and diamond jewellery under private label RJ. The new jewellery stores will bring a sunshine space to exploit in the signage segment offering unmatched opportunity to the companies such as in-store media companies and signage suppliers.
India’s largest retail chain Subhiksha is likely to launch multiple stores at the same time in Kolkata from the middle of February as it has finalised the roll out plan for the city. The retail major, with the ‘bachaat mera adhikar’ slogan, will be offering 9-10 percent discount in all of its city outlets and the Kolkata market for food and groceries is estimated at more than Rs 300 crore. In spite of the delights for shoppers, the new Subhiksha stores will be sunshine spot for signage players, such as in-store media companies and signage providers, for a new opportunity.
Eyeing a larger share of the country’s retail market, K Raheja-promoted retail chain Hypercity Retail has outlined an aggressive growth plan. As part of this, Hypercity plans to open five more shopping mall pan-India over the next 18 months in major centres like Amritsar and Bangalore. The company recently opened a new mall in Mumbai taking the total number of malls in the country to five. As of today Hypercity has two malls in Mumbai and one each in Jaipur and Hyderabad. Now, in-store media companies and signage makers in such cities can get prepared to hit the Hypercity Malls.
Reliance Retail Ltd (RRL) and partner Pearle Europe plan to open up to 700 stores of their eyewear retail chain ‘Vision Express’ across India in the next seven to eight years. Vision Express is an equal joint venture (JV) between RRL and Pearle Europe, the biggest optical retail group in Europe. The JV presently operates 41 stores across major cities in the country. Vision Express will continue to open company-owned stores with an average floor space of 800-900 sq ft and the opening of the ‘Vision Express’ stores will be a big business opportunity for signage players like in-store media companies and signage suppliers.
Kolkata-based leading menswear brand Turtle plans to open four more exclusive brand outlets (EBOs) in Orissa over the next one year. This will take the number of EBOs in the state to seven by the end of 2010. The company is scouting for property in Bhubaneswar, Rourkela, Sambalpur and Balasore to open EBOs while the third EBO will come up in Bhubaneswar in the next few months. The new EBOs will be new destinations to embark upon for signage players that include in-store media companies and signage suppliers.
A leading major in imaging and printing solutions, Kodak India plans to open 100 Kodak Express stores in the country over the next two years, with an estimated investment of Rs 15 crore. The company plans to open 100 Kodak Express stores by 2012 with an investment of Rs 15 lakh per store. The main focus will be major metros and tier II cities. Currently, Kodak has 12 such stores across the country and the new stores in the pipeline will offer a new opportunity to the signage industry, particularly the in-store media companies and signage suppliers.
Cotton King, an attire brand for men, opened its 25th outlet in Maharashtra and 8th in Pune in a span of five years. The company offers value-for-money products with a large variety and high quality of 100 percent cotton category and planning to expand in the regions like Hyderabad, Bangalore, Mysore, Hubli and Dharwad. Apart from strengthening its base in Mumbai (Navi Mumbai, Thane and Kalyan), other parts in consideration are Napur, Amravati, Akola, apart from the neighbouring states like Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Voila! It would be a big opportunity for every signage player, particularly in-store media companies and signage suppliers.
After Germany’s Metro and US-based Wal-Mart, UK’s largest Cash & Carry player Booker Group Plc has set up its first shop in Mumbai. Booker India, a unit of Booker Group, spent nearly Rs 8 crore in setting up the 35,000 sq ft Cash and Carry store in Kandivali suburb of Mumbai and planned to roll out similar ones in other parts of the country. Metros and smaller towns can take different sized stores in the country and the company sees how the Mumbai store operates and stabilises. And there is the fact that the new Cash & Carry stores will lend a new business opportunity to signage companies, particularly in-store media companies and signage players.
Ducati Motor Holding, the world’s leading producer of Racing inspired motorcycles has opened its first showroom in India. Partnered with Precision Motor India Private Limited to provide opportunities for growth and further establishment of the Ducati Brand, the company has chosen Mumbai as its location for the first flagship showroom. The Ducati brand which symbolises racing success, innovative technology and the highest quality standards is a perfect fit for Precision Motor India and the opening of the new high-end store will race up opportunity for signage players, such as signage suppliers as well as in-store media companies.