Shoppers' Stop chain on nationwide expansion

Departmental store chain Shoppers' Stop and its fully owned bookstore chain subsidiary, Crossword is on the verge of nationwide expansion.

The expansion plan comes after the company signed an MoU with the Nuance Group from Switzerland to enter the Indian airport retail market.

The retail chain is planning to add 24 new Shoppers' Stop to the existing 19 in three years, 45 new Crossword outlets, four new Home Stop outlets, 20 Hypercity outlets and 40 Mother Care outlets across 10 cities. The entire expansion process needs Rs 1,000 crore investment.

Although Mumbai will have maximum number of new outlet, Gujarat is high on the retail chain's expansion radar. Crossword has just opened its 35th store in Ahmedabad at S.G Road. The 15,000 sq feet store is first of the three outlets, the company plans to open in Ahmedabad.

"Gujarat was the place where we launched our first Crossword store and the emotional connection with the customers here is very high. Our next two outlets would come up at Drive-In and Vastrapur area by the end of the year, " said B S Nagesh, Chairman-Crossword Bookstores.

Crossword's revenues last year totalled Rs 80 crore and although the company does not have any concrete growth estimates, the revenues so far this year have been reported to be close to Rs 100 crore.

The company is also planning to continue its association with Cafe Coffee Day, whose franchisees are part of all crossword stores.

With changing reader tastes, the company plans to stock more Gujarati titles in its collection of 10,000 titles in the new store and is also looking at children's books, self help and management books as the fastest growing segments for the store.