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Virtual shop being readied, retail ESOP planned -- Shoppers' Stop set to open doors in Chennai by July

Vinay Kamath

Boby Kurian

BANGALORE, Feb. 5

THIS July will see the `superstore' chain, Shoppers' Stop's sixth store opening on Chennai's Harrington Road.

Mr. B.S. Nagesh, CEO, Shoppers' Stop, told Business Line that the retail chain has finalised a 50,000 sq ft property for a store which will come up in the same format as its five other stores, with two notable category additions _ books and music.

To be set up at an investment of approximately Rs. 13 crores, its sixth store will follow closely the opening of its fifth one in Jaipur two months ago. It has stores in Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad and Bangalore. The Hyderabad store, too, will see books and music added on to its product line.

By April, Shoppers' Stop will also kick off its virtual store, shoppersstop.com, on which it eventually hopes to sell over 15,000 products. Being developed by an independent three-member team of web developers, the site will retail most of the products t hat Shoppers' Stop stocks as well as new product categories and, maybe even durables.

Meanwhile, Shoppers' Stop has appointed consultants Noble & Hewitt to work out a detailed employee stock option plan for the chain to be announced around May. As the chain is not a publicly-listed company as yet, it will be a shadow ESOP plan that will b e put in place for now. There are no immediate plans for an IPO, Mr. Nagesh said.

The Chennai store, Mr. Nagesh said, will break even in 18 to 24 months. He expects the store to attract around 3,000 customers a day on an average. The store will have a saree expert also, giving advise on a special saree line for the Chennai market.

Shoppers' Stop is also negotiating for a further nine stores in various cities in the country and expects to be a 30-store operation in another five years. With an employee base of 850 people, the chain expects a turnover of Rs. 160 crores by this year e nd and Rs. 300 crore by next year.

Altogether, it has a total store space of a 150,000 sq feet and 80,000 SKUs (stock keeping units).