Trent to scale up Star Bazaar stores to 18 by end of FY11

Tata group's Trent Hypermarket plans to scale up its Star Bazaar stores to 18 by the end of FY11, a top company official today said.

"We will be opening 7-9 stores by the end of next fiscal and two by March-end. The investment per store would be Rs 7-crore," Star Bazaar's Chief Operating Officer Gordon Reid, told reporters here today.

At present, Trent operates seven Star Bazaar stores, out of which three were opened in this fiscal, he said.

The new stores will come up at Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore and Ahmedabad, Reid said, adding that the company will focus in the southern and western region for the next one year.

On Star Bazaar's revenues, Reid said the store sales grew by 41 per cent this fiscal (for nine-months) as compared to the same period last fiscal.

"We have done well in all categories of products, but FMCG and general merchandise have been extremely good," he said.