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Pune, March 6 Bella Casa, the home improvement retail chain from the Rajan Raheja Group, has opened its exclusive store in Pune. Located at the Ishanya Mall, which is a design centre and speciality mall, the store occupies a retail space of 5,000 sq ft, Mr Ananth Narayan, Chief Executive Officer, Bella Casa India (P) Ltd, told presspersons here on Thursday.

He noted that the store would have on display products across categories such as tiles, baths and kitchens, floorings, mosaic, shower enclosures and bathroom fittings. The store houses products from Italy, Germany, Austria, Spain, England and Turkey along with the domestic products, he said. He noted that there are baths from Twyford and VitrA, kitchens from Nobilia, laminated floorings from Egger, tiles from Imola Ceramica and shower enclosures from Germany among other things.

He said that apart from being a one-stop-shop for home decorating needs, it would also be providing the services of plumbers, carpenters etc, for the necessary fittings into the residences. It is available as a small service in Mumbai and Bangalore, where Bella Casa has its stores. By May 2008, it would be present in Gurgaon, Indore, Ahmedabad and a second outlet in Bangalore. As part of its expansion plans, it would be opening 250 stores by 2017.

Mr Narayan noted that Tile Bazaar, which has been operational for the past seven months, has already opened 17 stores in the country and would have around 400 stores by 2017. He said next in the pipeline are stores in Chennai, Vapi, Vijaywada, Guntur, Vizag and Ahmedabad, which would be operational within a month’s time. He noted that about 20 locations have been identified across the country, which would be operational by July this year.

Commenting on the tile, sanitary market, Mr Narayan noted that the market was growing at double digits and said the tile market in the organised market contributed to about Rs 7,000 crore while in the kitchen market it was to the tune of Rs 1,200 crore. He added that the company was estimating break-even in Bella Casa within a year and four months, and Tile Bazaar within a year and two month on a store basis.

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