Spencer''s to reduce its retail formats

New Delhi: RPG Group''s retail arm Spencer''s has come up with a new branding strategy which will see it trimming the number of its retail formats, and heightening focusing on the retail of food items.

Spencer''s presently has a total of around 290 stores, which cover four retail formats, Hyper, Super, Daily and Express. The company plans to eventually reduce these to three formats.

According to Spencer''s Retail''s vice president for the northern region, Satyaki Ghosh, the company will merge two similar formats and will go with only three formats, i.e. one big box, small box and a range of stores in the middle range.

Ghosh did not part with any clues about which two formats would be merged, though he did say that Spencer''s was working on new brand names, and that the stores between the big and small box formats will retain their positions as key bread winners.

Spencer''s is reportedly investing Rs2,500 crore on its retail expansion till March 2009. It would cover around 20-25 lakh square feet of retail space by September 2008, with the total area across all formats adding up to around 17 lakh sq ft by the end of 2007.

Spencer''s is present in 32 cities, and is looking to expand into the top 119 cities across the country.

Ghosh said that women are a target customer for the company, for which Spencer''s is devising a strategy to meet their needs of value for money, better shopping ambiance, and value added services like kids play-areas.

Spencer''s small format stores will reportedly focus on food, and will offer international cuisines alongside Indian preparations in ready-to-eat, semi-cooked and pre-cooked formats, and will also have a café inside every store. According to Ghosh, Spencer''s wants to be known as a food retailer, with the small stores being basically food stores.