The Bombay Store to set up 16 outlets
Bombay Swadeshi Stores, the gift and home retail chain, which sells under the brand of ‘The Bombay Store’, is planning to set up 16 stores by FY 2012. It is looking at upcoming new airports in the country for locating some of the new stores.
The Mumbai-based company has 11 stores in the country and is looking to set up outlets in Mumbai, Bangalore, Aurangabad, Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai, Indore, Chandigarh and Udaipur. A majority of its clientele comprises of those who purchase Indian artefact and home accessories as gifts. “Our products are mainly an impulse buy which would appeal to a traveller who can pick it up as a gift at the airport itself. For this, we are looking to set up our outlets in new terminals in Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad and Chennai,” said Asim Dalal, managing director, The Bombay Store.
Conceived in 1906 by Lokmanya Tilak as the Bombay Swadeshi Co-operative Stores, the Dalal family acquired the company in 1991 and launched the brand, ‘The Bombay Store’, in 1995. Presently, the Dalal family owns 60 per cent of the company, investor Fidelty Multitrade holds 14.9 per cent and rest is held by the public. In 2008, the company had raised Rs 20 crore as equity from Fidelity Multitrade which will be used for the planned expansion. Dalal said that there were no plans to offload more equity in the immediate future but said that the company would look at raising Rs 10 crore through debt in the next one and half years.
With 25 per cent of its clientele in most stores comprising of foreigners, the company is thinking of setting foot in other countries. “By the end of 2011, we could start looking at setting up stores abroad. UK, France, Germany and US are the markets we would like to explore,”said Dalal. He added that the company would look at the JV model if and when the right opportunity arose. It is also exploring the shop-in-shop format and could start discussions in this regard in the next three to six months. It is looking at this format in India as well as abroad. In FY 09, the company clocked a turnover of Rs 23 crore and is expecting to end March 2010 at Rs 30 crore.