• Investment World
• eWorld
• Brand Line
• Mentor
• Life
• Canvas
• Praxis
• Urban Pulse
• Brand Quest
• The New Manager

Stocks

• Quotes
• SE Diary
• Scoreboard
• Open-End Mutual Fund

Cross Currency

• Rates
  
  

Shipping

• Ports
  
  

Archives

• Yesterday
• Datewise
• Resources
• In Focus
• In Depth

Group Sites

• The Hindu
• The Hindu ePaper
• Business Line
• Business Line ePaper
• Sportstar
• Frontline
• The Hindu eBooks
• The Hindu Images

Mr Andrew Levermore

Purvita Chatterjee

Mumbai, Aug. 17 Entering and creating a new market of catalogue retailing in the country, HyperCity Argos is expected to match the prices of its existing brick and mortar retail format Hypercity, which currently has a single store in Mumbai.

Mr Andrew Levermore, CEO, HyperCity Retail (India), said: “The prices charged for the goods supplied from HyperCity Argos catalogues will be similar to that of HyperCity, as there is going to be 100 per cent overlap of products present in the existing HyperCity in Mumbai.”

Besides, it would be expected to have free home delivery of products if sold within the local area of collection centres.

Having announced its entry into catalogue retailing, HyperCity Argos is expected to quickly penetrate into new markets with its ready format unlike the rest of the brick and mortar retail chains of HyperCity.

Mr Levermore said: “It is a ready business for us and we would have distribution centres through which we would be able to reach out quickly to a large number of cities across the country.”

The company plans to have a test launch of its concept in Thane near Mumbai before rolling it out to the other suburbs of Mulund, Vashi and Airoli and then entering Pune.

In India, HyperCity Argos is expected to have display centres, online and call and collect counters that would cater to customers of a particular region.

While the call and collect centres would have 300 sq ft area, display centres would occupy an area of 10,000 sq ft.

It would vend general merchandise through its catalogues which would include items from electronic items to home décor products.

Mr Levermore said: “Catalogue retailing does not exist in this country and considering that property acquisition is high, we feel we can expand this business quickly.”

He added: “Our catalogue would have nearly 5,000 products and we have already distributed one lakh of these in Thane. Consumers can now simply pick up the phone and order our products.”

The UK-based Home Retail group has signed an MoU with K Raheja Group divisions Shoppers’ Stop and HyperCity Retail to develop a retail format for Argos.

In the UK and Ireland, Argos is one of the leading general merchandise retail chains; it also has an online business.

Argos stores and catalogue will be called HyperCITY-Argos and will be operated as an SPV in India.

More Stories on : Retailing | Brands | Maharashtra

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
For Coke, flavoured milk is the new real thing

Copyright © 2007, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line