Infiniti Retail Ltd''s Croma gears up for festive-season sales

Pune: Croma, the Tata Group''s chain of electronic and consumer durables outlets, is experimenting with mailing product catalogues containing information on ''deals'' and best buys to potential customers.

Infiniti Retail Ltd, the owner of the Croma brand, is a 100 per cent subsidiary of Tata Sons. It has partnered with Australian retail major Woolsworths Ltd to source all the products.

Starting September, the new initiative, obviously directed at the festive-buying wave that gathers momentum as a run-up to the Diwali season, will be rolled out in Mumbai, Pune and Ahmedabad, according to CEO and managing director of Infiniti Retail Ltd., Ajit Joshi.

Croma''s first store in Pune was inaugurated at Ishanya mall, off the Airport road. Joshi said around 70,000 such catalogues are being mailed out across Pune alone, and a second store in Pune is to be launched later at the Krome mall on Solapar Road. This will take the tally of Croma stores in India to eight.

The company plans to roll out 40 stores, which typically cover an area ranging from 10,000 to 20,000 sq ft each, by the end of March 2008, and plans to have 100 stores in Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Baroda, Chennai, Surat, Mumbai, New Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Nashik and Pune with locations at high streets or malls, by March 2010.

Croma outlets stock 6,000 products comprising 180 national and international brands under eight categories, viz. home entertainment, small appliances, white goods, computers and peripherals, communication, music, imaging and gaming.