Malabar Group to invest Rs 1,500 crore in expansion
Around Rs 900 cr would be spent for expanding the stores. The company has 32 stores in Kerala, 11 each in TN and Karnataka and 10 in Andhra
"We have made a plan to invest around Rs 1,500 crore in the expansion of gold and jewellery business and real estate projects. The company has 1,600 investors and we will meet the rest of the funding requirement through bank supports," said M P Ahammed, chairman - Malabar Group of Companies.
Of the total investment, around Rs 900 crore would be spent for expanding the stores. The company currently has around 32 stores in Kerala, 11 each in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, 10 in Andhra Pradesh, and a few stores in Delhi, Maharashtra and Gujarat.
The company, which launched its 100th showroom in Gurgaon on Saturday, is planning to launch another 100 showrooms by the end of 2015.
Plans are also on to expand presence to the northern and western part of the country for a pan-India presence.
It would set up showrooms in Kolkata and Ahmadabad in October, and has also appointed Hindi film actress Kareena Kapoor as brand ambassador.
However, the brand building exercise would be only fruitful if the company has presence across these region, he said. The company has earmarked around Rs 100 crore for advertisement as part of brand building, this year.
Besides, it is also planning to launch showrooms in Singapore, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Malaysia and Bangkok in the near future.
Investment in other segments
Around Rs 600 crore of the total investment would go in other segments, including real estate development. The company has around 100 acre land bank, including joint ventures, mainly in Kerala and plans are to develop townships, commercial hubs and an IT park at Trissur in an area of 20 acres. Malabar Developers, the real estate arm of the group, has so far developed 1 million sft of commercial and residential projects.
The company also has plans to launch an e-commerce venture to sell gold and diamond jeweleries. This would be launched in the second half of October, this year.
The group currently has a turnover of Rs 22,000 crore.