Trent to invest Rs2,000 crore in 50 hypermarkets over 5 years

Mumbai: Tata Group retail arm Trent Ltd plans to invest up to Rs2,000 crore for setting up 50 hypermarkets (Star Bazaar) over the next five years.

''We are launching 50 new hypermarket stores 'Star Bazaar' in the next five years at an investment of around Rs2,000 crore,'' Noel Tata, managing director of  Trent Ltd, said.

Addressing reporters after the launch of Trent's second 'Star Bazaar' at Andheri in Mumbai, he said Trent aims to expand to 100 stores across formats by financial year 2009-10. The money will be raised through internal accruals only.

"Higher property price has hit retail expansion. In hypermarkets, property is a major and significant cost in our business," Tata said.

''We have huge pressures on cost - both in terms of raw material and staff. We have been able to absorb quite a substantial portion of those increased costs," he said.

The best way to drive cost down was growing the business as fast as possible, he added.

Trent has sop far set up 31 `Westside' departmental stores measuring 15,000-30,000 square feet each in Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune, Delhi, Noida, Gurgaon, Kolkata, Nagpur, Indore, Baroda, Surat and Ludhiana.

The company hopes to expand rapidly with similar format stores that offer a fine balance between style and price retailing.

"We have taken up aggressive expansion programmes by opening 12 new `Westside' stores, five landmark and a few hypermarkets," Tata said.

Trent, meanwhile, has tied up with Italian apparel retailer Benetton Group Spa to run and manage its premium fashion brand, Sisley, in India. Trent currently manages six Sisley stores in India.

Trent posted revenues of Rs716 crore and net profit of Rs33.64 crore on a consolidated basis in FY 08.