Retail arm of RPG Enterprises—Spencer’s Retail will have 750 stores by end of March 2010, said a top company official.
“We have currently 400 stores across the country having a total retail space of 12.7 lakh square feet. Our plan is to take the number to 450 by end of the current fiscal in March 2009 and then have 750 stores by March 2010,” said Sanjiv Goenka, vice president, RPG Enterprises.
The company’s expansion plan would continue despite its decision this year to close down 56 stores across the country. “The 56 stores were non-performing stores. In many cases the rents were high and in some others the revenue from the stores were not picking up and so we took the decision to close them,” added Goenka.
The company is looking at the fashion and apparel segment as a major area of expansion and aims to take up the share of the segment to 25-30 per cent of the company’s total revenue.
Admitting a slowdown in the economy, Goenka emphasised apparel segment will remain immune to the slowdown as the segment forms basic needs of an individual. However, Goenka admitted that the inability of real estate industry to deliver projects on time has affected their expansion plans.
Talking about the music retail arm of RPG — Music World, Goenka said the expansion of the format may not be on cards this year but the company will have an aggressive roll out of Music World in 2009-10.
—Shailesh Shah
