The Hindu Business Line : Pantaloon Retail plans lifestyle store in Chennai

According to Mr Rohit Malhotra, Head-Operations, South Zone, Pantaloon Retail, this is part of the company's plan to set up at least one `Central' in each State capital next year.

Now there are three `Central' stores at Bangalore, Hyderabad and Pune.

Mr Malhotra told Business Line that the Chennai store would come up in an upmarket area either as a standalone or part of a mall. He was here to launch the company's first Big Bazaar hypermarket.

Big Bazaar is the company's `value' retailing store.

Spread across 50,000 sq ft on one level, it is expected to grow to be a 10-storey store in the next few years, said Mr Malhotra. As of now, construction for two storeys has been planned.

The company has invested Rs 15 crore for the leased premises and expects revenues of over Rs 100 crore in the next one year. The store has over 1.6 lakh items across categories such as apparel, personalcare, household products, electronics goods, furniture, kitchen equipment, and stationery besides a pharmacy unit, a jewellery unit and a mobile phone section. The store offers up to 60 per cent discount on items throughout the year.

Another store

Another Big Bazaar store is likely to come up in the city in the next 6-9 months.

The company is awaiting clearances from the Chennai Municipality.

Pantaloon Retail plans to add about 26 million sq ft retail space in the next two years across its lifestyle and value stores in India.

As part of this expansion, over 20 Big Bazaar stores and 35 Food Bazaar stores, catering to homecare products, would be added over the next year in South India alone.

At present, the company occupies about 3.5 million sq ft retail space across the country including 10 Big Bazaars and 16 Food Bazaars in South India.