Infiniti Retail plans to have over 100 Croma stores by 2011

Tata Group's Infiniti Retail today said it expects to have over 100 'Croma' stores across the country in the next three years as it eyes deeper penetration into Tier-II and Tier-III cities.

The company said it is looking at opening around 22 stores this fiscal and plans to pump in over Rs 50 crore for the purpose.

"Three years down the line we expect to have around 100 plus Croma stores across the country. By that time, we will be having greater presence in the Tier-II and Tier-III cities and a deeper penetration into the market," Infiniti Retail Chief Executive Officer Ajit Joshi told PTI.

At present, it operates around 32 Croma stores in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune and Hyderabad among others.

Infiniti Retail, which sells electronic goods of around 180 brands in its Croma stores, today launched its small format store 'Croma Zip' at the Delhi International Airport.

"This is the third Croma Zip store that we are opening. We are planning to open another 11 such small stores and around 10 large stores across the country," Joshi said.

Joshi said for every small outlet the company will be putting around Rs 1.8 crore and for a larger format store it requires around Rs three crore.

Infiniti Retail is a 100 per cent subsidiary of Tata Sons.

The average size of a Croma store is around 10,000-12,000 sq ft, while a smaller format store is around 2,500-6,500 sq ft, Joshi said.

Infiniti Retail is aiming at increasing its private label products to 100 this fiscal, mainly in the personal care segment.

"We expect our private label products to contribute around 20 per cent of our sales. We have around 45-46 products under our private labels, including ACs and toasters. We want to increase it to 100 products by this year with focus personal care range," he said.