Shoppers Stop to invest Rs 1,500 cr in 3 yrs

"We are planning to invest Rs 1,500 crore in the next three years. Of this, Rs 500 crore will be raised through equity and warrants, Rs 500 crore through internal accruals and the rest through debt," Shoppers Stop Managing Director B S Nagesh told PTI here.

The company, which has filed a letter of offer with stock market regulator Sebi for its rights issue, expects to receive final observations by June, Shoppers Stop CEO Govind Shrikhande said.

At present, there are 24 Shoppers Stop stores in the country which will be doubled in the next three years, Nagesh said.

"We are planning to have at least 48 stores by 2011-12 and the present 1.5 million sq ft area of operation of Shoppers Stop will touch 3.5 million sq ft," Shrikhande said.

The per store area, currently about 40,000-45,000 sq ft, will be increased to around 75,000-85,000 sq feet, he added.

"We are looking at having bigger formats of Shoppers Stop," he said.

The company will get into a number of new tier-II cities like Ahmedabad, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Amritsar, Vijayawada and Mangalore, Nagesh said.

On challenges before the retail industry, Nagesh said the high cost of operation still remains a concern while there was a hype surrounding the business.

 Its time the retailers focused on performance, he said.: "We will continue to focus on premium category and also on luxury and have high-end brands like Espirit, Mac, Tommy Hilfiger and Lancome," Shrikhande said.

Shoppers Stop unveiled its new logo, which has an international look along with their own anthem, at a press conference here yesterday.

The company has also launched its own in-store radio format and tied-up with music content company Blue Frog, which would update customers on new fashion, homeware and others, he said.

The company has launched environment-friendly recyclable bags and distributed 15 million neem seed sachets.