Rosebys to expand in India; make European comeback
07 Dec 2009
The UK's largest specialist textiles, lifestyle and home décor retailer Rosebys plans to expand its stores in India and also re-enter the European market which it quit three years ago. However, it will stick to the franchise route rather than own the stores.
Rosebys chief executive Aloke Banerjee told reporters on the sidelines of a textiles conference in New Delhi on Saturfay that the company is targeting a presence across India with stores evenly spread across the metros as well as smaller towns. He said the store would increase its presence from the current 100 stores to 300 by 2011.
Banerjee said that Rosebys India is likely to generate revenues of about Rs100 crore for the current fiscal, and expects annual sales to reach Rs500crore over the next four years aided by its brand-building exercises store additions. "Our biggest cost is on brand building and there will be no let down on that,'' he added.
Rosebys, which sells products such as bed linen and cushions, is poised to benefit from rising demand for home textiles products in India, Banerjee said. He added that the company would leverage its Indian expertise to re-launch in Europe.
Indian conglomerate Gujarat Heavy Chemicals Ltd (GHCL) acquired the UK's Rosebys chain in a $40 million (Rs180 crore) deal in 2006. After the acquisition, the company promptly closed down all 320 stores in the UK.
"After the buyout, the recession hit; and we wanted to restructure the business in the UK. In the meantime we started the India operations. Now we are expanding to Belgium, France, Poland and Romania," Banerjee said. "By the end of this fiscal itself you will see our presence in one or two of those countries.''
