Pantaloon to open 25-30 new stores this year

Pantaloon Retail (India) Ltd, a subsidiary of the Kishore Biyani-promoted Future Group, would open 25-30 new stores of the company's hypermarket chain Big Bazaar and supermarket chain Food Bazaar by the end of the year.

''This will add to 10-12 lakh sq ft of retail space, and we would be investing around Rs1,000 per sq ft for setting up the new stores," Food Bazaar chief executive officer Sadashiv Nayak told reporters on the sidelines of Food Forum 2009 in Mumbai on Thursday.

He said the company is focusing on the eight major cities in India, including the four metros, besides Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad for expanding the two chains. "Besides, we also have strong markets in places like Guwahati, Ranchi and Nagpur. Our target is to achieve double digit growth in the next fiscal also," Nayak said.

 There are currently 149 Big Bazaar and 109 Food Bazaar stores across the country.
 
Pantaloon Retail is targeting a growth of 30-35 per cent in the value retail segment by end of its current fiscal year in June 2009, he added. The company is also hiring more people, Nayak said, without mentioning figures.
 
Targets slashed
Despite the positive spin, the figures actually reflect a cut in Pantaloon's store expansion target by more than a third for the next financial year, managing director Kishore Biyani told Dow Jones Newswires in Bangalore on Thursday.

The aim of India's biggest retailer by market capitalisation to add 2.5-million sq ft of retail space is lower than the earlier planned four million square feet in the year beginning 1 July.

"We had targeted 30 million square feet of retail space by 2011, but now that has been deferred by 18-24 months. So, obviously our space addition target for next year will get deferred," Biyani said.

He added that the company would need to invest Rs700-800 crore for the expansion. Pantaloon will look to raise Rs300-400 crore via equity, which may include promoter funding. The rest would come from internal cash flows.

The company added a total of 100,000 square feet of retail space in February, below that of December and January. Pantaloon Retail currently operates about 11.5 million square feet of retail space. It remains the most profitable of the retail chains in India.