Central plans to add second store in Ahmedabad this year

Plans to take its store count to 36 from a current 30 within this fiscal

Lifestyle and fashion department store of the Future Group, Central, which recently ramped up its brand portfolio, is planning to take its store count to 36 from a current 30 within this fiscal, with an approximate investment of about Rs 180-200 crore. Meanwhile, it is also planning to add another store in Ahmedabad within the next eight to ten months.

Central is the flagship retail format of Future Lifestyle Fashion, and is a chain of department stores located in central areas of large Indian metropolises and cities like Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, Ahmedabad and Gurgaon, as well as smaller cities like Baroda, Indore, Vizag, Surat, Mohali, Patna, Mangalore and Pimpri. These are large-format stores measuring anywhere between 60,000 square feet to 230,000 square feet and offering over 500 brands across categories. The company operates around 3 million square feet of retail space under this brand."

Speaking at the sidelines of a conference here in Ahmedabad, Ashish Gargi, assistant vice president, operations, Future Lifestyle Fashions Ltd said, "For the past ten months we have been looking for a property in Ahmedabad, and we have zeroed in on a few locations. We plan to start another store in Ahmedabad within the next eight to ten months. With that we will renovate and revamp our old store here and feature more international brands in this one, as with two Central stores in the city at least 10-15 per cent cannibalisation would happen."

He added that the cost of setting up a 1.3-1.5 lakh square feet store is roughly about Rs 25-30 crore, and that the company was planning to add six stores across the country this year. Gargi also claimed that the west zone has the maximum number of Central stores, around 15, and is estimated to register a turnover of about Rs 700 crore in 2014-15, of the net Rs 3,000 crore all-India turnover. "Of this, nearly Rs 260 crore has come from Gujarat, where we operate three stores. The Ahmedabad Central has already crossed Rs 100 crore turnover," Gargi said.

He also added that while the turnover has been clocking a 20 per cent compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) over the last five years for like-to-like stores, the bottomline growth has been around 9-10 per cent. He did not wish to share the profits for 2014-15.

Upbeat on Gujarat, Central also plans to add new stores in locations like Rajkot, Gandhidham or Bhuj.