Mirza Int'l in Dubai venture

Mirza International has started its first retail outfit outside India in Dubai. The retail chain, known as the Red Tape exclusive store, is strategically located on the Dubai-Sharjah highway at Safeer Mall in Sharjah.

This mall is spread over 1.2 million square feet, and houses about 130 speciality stores, offering a range of lifestyle brands.

With its debut in Dubai the company is planning to quickly spread out to other places in West Asia.

"In the next two-three years," says Rashid Mirza, MD of the company, "we plan to expand in West Asia to establish about 30 to 40 retail outfits. These will be on franchise model. We are talking to our distributors and to franchise holders about it. Of these about 20 shops will come up in UAE and another 10 to 15 in Saudi Arabia."

He said, "But we are not going to have retail shops in Europe, from where our principal business comes from because we are already selling to retailers who run multi model shops. In that case we shall be competing with our own retailers in that continent, which we do not propose to do. By the same logic we are not going to start our own retail shops in the US either."

In India, the company has so far started its own retail shops at about 20 places and more are being added . Recently, it opened a store in Indore, and in the next two days it will start stores in Delhi, Siliguri, Kolkata, Bhubaneshwar, Guwahati, Moradbad, Meerut, Dehra Dun etc.

Initially these outfits will house only men's shoes, and ladies footwear will be added to it as the company increases its production of ladies footwear. Along with it there are footwear for children that has just started. Other products will fill-in these stores as and when the supply begins, Mirza said.

However, the company does not expect to cross the turnover of last year which was Rs 256 crore. Mirza said exports too would be lower than the last year, but the indigenous sales, were expected to be better.