ABRL to invest Rs 100 cr to open hypermarket stores by FY15

Company has launched its in-house apparel and footwear brands and will expand to home linen and kitchen segments by next year

Aditya Birla Retail Ltd (ABRL) will invest up to Rs 100 crore by March 2015 to open up to 10 large format 'Hypermarket' stores as it scales up operations with more product offerings.

"We expect our turnover to shoot up significantly as we open 8-10 'Hypermarket' stores spread across metros by next financial year with each store requiring investment of Rs 10 crore," ABRL CEO, Hypermarket, Russel Berman told PTI.

He added: "We expect contribution in turnover from apparels and footwear to increase to 20%, from 16% now."

Berman, however, did not share the turnover reported by the company in the 2012-13 fiscal. ABRL, which has 16 'Hypermarket' stores, with average store size of 55,000 sq ft, will open three more this year.

ABRL has launched its in-house apparel and footwear brands and will expand to home linen and kitchen segments by next year.

"We wanted to increase value proposition for our customers with the foray in in-house apparel and footwear brands. We are now moving towards home linen and kitchen segment," Berman said.

The company is expected to achieve break-even by FY 2016, he added.

It is sourcing products for its in-house apparel and footwear brands from locations like Delhi, Ludhiana, Jaipur, Kolkata and Agra.