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Our Bureau

Bangalore, Nov. 22

Infiniti Retail, the retail subsidiary of Tata Sons, is planning a quick ramp-up of Croma, its electronic mega store brand, across the country by March 2008, but is not eyeing local acquisitions now. Mr Ajit Joshi, CEO, Infiniti Retail, told Business Line, “We want to start afresh at every location and not carry the baggage of an existing player.” He was referring to market talk of Infiniti’s plans to acquire a South Indian electronics retail chain.

Launching the first Croma store in Bangalore on Wednesday, Mr Joshi said that the plan is to have 30 stores in the country by March 2008 and 100 stores by 2010.

The locations would be a combination of mall space and standalone stores. Croma, which currently has 6,000 SKUs across eight product categories, offers more than 180 national and global brands.

Mr Joshi said that each flagship store of Croma would be around 15,000-20,000 sq ft in size, requiring an investment of Rs 1.5 crore in the store and its ambience and around Rs 2 crore in the inventory.

Croma stores in Mumbai currently have around 2,500 visitors on weekdays and 3,500 on weekends with a conversion rate of around 25per cent, Mr Joshi said.

For consumers on the move, Infiniti has launched Croma Zip, an 850 sq ft store in Mumbai airport. “We may look at such stores as and when we get the opportunity,” Mr Joshi said.

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