Mani Square gears up to beat slowdown

Mani Square, the 7,10,000 sq ft mall opened, which opened in July 2008, is gearing up to woo customers with new schemes and strategies, in bid to beat the slowdown.

Sanjay Jhunjhunwala, MD of Mani Group, said, “We record footfalls of 42,000 on Sundays and 14,000 on Saturdays. On weekdays, footfalls are around 7-8,000. The conversion ratio of buyers depend on retailers, their product mix and offerings. The food court itself earns revenues of Rs 45 lakh per month.”

He added, “Any new project needs some time to break-even and become viable. Same with Mani Square."

Mani Square today announced ‘Baisakhi Blast’ from April 1 to 14, which ia a bundle of discount offers with special attractions like rock band performances, and others. The event is expected to boost footfalls by 20-30 per cent during weekends.

Customers will be offered special items the from the food court, a game of bowling at Amoeba, two shows daily at IMAX and the fourth ticket for Cinemax, each at Rs 21, a flat 21 per cent off on a-la-carte food at Machaan for the lunch session, Rs 21 off on Rajasthan Thali on the second visit, a pack of three for Scary house for Rs 63, a gift voucher worth Rs 100, on every purchase of Rs 2000, from any store in the mall and much more as part of the special Rs 21 offer.

The fifteen day long festival-shopping will also include events like Rajasthani Dance, Moongaram’s performance from Rajasthan, Rock Band Performance, Magic Show, Tattoo making, antakshari, among others.

According to Shiv Daswani, CEO of Little Shop, a kidswear retailer, “A slowdown does not immediately affect kidswear as parents may stop buying for themselves, but would not compromise on requirements of their children.”

“The new scheme launched should see sales going up by 20-30 per cent,” added Daswani.

Currently, Kolkata has four Little Shop, and the company intends to open one more in City Centre II.

Slowdown apart, Mani Square has high rentals of Rs 125-175 per square feet, and facing retailers' wrath.