Impact Retail plans 30 stores

Impact Retail, a franchisee of Kuwait-based Alghanim Industries, is all set to invest Rs 200 crore for 30 consumer electronics goods stores in top 12 Indian cities over the next 15 months.

Branded as ‘X-cite’, the retail shops would also bring Alghanim's own electronics goods brand ‘Wansa’ along with other multi-national brands to India.

Impact Retail will launch its second store after Hyderabad in Pune on September 29. Similar stores would come up in Ahmedabad, Gurgaon, New Delhi, Bangalore, Chandigarh and Ludhiana by December this year. Speaking to Business Standard, Shrikant Gokhale, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Impact Retail, said, the company would sell electronic items like cellphones, laptops and computers at competitive prices.

“We have identified 12 top Indian cities where these stores would come up. The idea is to provide a one stop solution in case of electronic goods,” Gokhale added.

The company is spending approximately Rs 6 crore to set up single store as all of these would come in elite localities in top cities.

“We are planning to get eight stores operational by December this year. The number would touch 30 by December 2009 and the investment would cross Rs 200 crore,” Gokhale stated.

The firm would be introducing Wansa brand for the first time in India. “Wansa is our in-house brand, popular in the middle-east. Some other brands like Logitech and Creative, that are never found in Indian market, would be introduced through X-cite. We will also rejuvenaite brands like Panasonic and Toshiba in Indian market,” he added.