Thaindian News

New Delhi, Jan 28 (IANS) Reality major Landmark Group’s retail subsidiary SPAR Friday said that it plans to add another 24 hypermarkets to its chain in the next two years, with an investment of Rs.550 crore.”We plan to add another 24 hypermarkets in the metros and tier-I, II cities in the next two years, with a total investment of Rs.550 crore,” Viney Singh, managing director, Max Hypermarket India Pvt. Ltd - the parent company of SPAR, told IANS.

Singh, who recently opened the company’s sixth hypermarket in the national capital, said: “There is a large untapped potential in the market and we are looking forward to cater to it by opening large format multi-brand retail stores.”

Currently, the retail segment in the country is pegged at $465 billion with a compounded annual growth of 26 percent in which the organised sector playerve has a marginal share of 4.8 percent or $21 billion.

“With our new stores in place by 2013, we will be present in 15 cities in the country with an expected revenue of Rs.1,750 crore that time,” Singh said.

The company clocked revenues of Rs.1,500 crore in the fiscal 2009-10, from its five stores which include two stores in Bangalore, one store in Hyderabad and one in Manglaore.

SPAR’s hypermarkets, while stocking up on multi-brand goods, ranging from daily-use items like fast moving consumer goods (FMCG)to electronics, also houses the company’s wholly-owned private labels in many segments like food, beverages and textiles.

“Apart from having various multi-brands in many segments, we also cater to our customers with our own private labels of SPAR international like fresh vegetables, baked food, packed grocery and textiles,” he said.

Meanwhile, the hypermarket also houses 50,000 SKUs (stock-keeping units) apart from the private labels, in a large format stores which the company follows, with space upto 40,000 to 80,000 square metre.

According to Singh, apart from offering huge varieties of products in a single outlet, the unique feature of his hypermarket is the innovative offers, excellent shopping and customer care experience.

“We have 400 promotional offers which go on for 365 days of the year in which we give many deals such as every day low prices, best deal and premium segment products in which customers save money on daily usage items,” He added

The company also boosts of a strong back-end logistics to supply fresh produce like fruits, vegetables, meat and fish procured directly from the sources.

While, hypermarkets are busy in ramping up capacity, Singh feels that a major challenge in 2011 for the retail segment would be the inflationary pressure which has impacted margins of many of his private labels.

“Inflation is a major challenge in 2011, we have till now raised prices of our private labels for a year, this has caused an erosion of our margins. But I feel that the growth that we have seen in 2010 will continue in this year as it is sustainable,” he said.