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— Kamal Narang

Mr Gopal K. Jiwarajka (centre), Vice Chairman and Managing Director, Salora Group, with Mr Sanjive Sethi (left), CEO, Salora Retail Ventures Ltd, and Mr Tarun Jiwarajka, Director, Salora Retail Ventures Ltd, during a press conference in the Capital on Thursday.

Our Bureau

New Delhi, Sept. 4 Salora International has rolled out its chain of digital electronic retail outlets under the brand name Terminal. With nine stores in the Capital currently, the company, working on a neighbourhood concept, plans to be a national player in five years.

Declining to share investments, Mr Gopal K. Jiwarajka, Vice Chairman and Managing Director, Salora Group, addressing a press conference, said, “Let’s say it will take us 300-500 stores to be present nationally and we would like to better market benchmarks where costs are concerned”.

The company said it recognised a gap of digital focus stores in the friendly neighbourhood category that it hopes to fill with Terminal. Salora Retail Venture is targeting the 35 cities whose weighted average in value of sales is higher, said Mr Jiwarajka. The 900-sq. ft (on an average) stores will be standalone ones, at “3-4 km from the consumer’s house,” designed to “sell an experience first”.

Keeping that in mind, Terminal will showcase all brands in a clutter-free environment for consumers. Apart from the neighbourhood focus, the company is also concentrating on ‘digital’ only. It will feature consumer durables and host brands that cover television sets, mobiles and cameras, laptops and DTH hardware.

Salora, which has exclusive single brand tie-ups with Sony Ericsson in North India for about 10 stores, and Virgin Mobiles in North and East India for kiosks, is also in talks with other players to set up and manage their stores. Currently, it has about 17 Virgin Mobile kiosks in various malls; it is hoping the association with the mobile maker is extended to cover their plans for Virgin stores too.

“The digital electronics category is throwing up exciting opportunities in the Indian market. The electronics market is estimated to be $125 billion by 2015. With a very small percentage of this market being captured by organised retailers, we see huge opportunity in this space in the years to come,” said Mr Jiwarajka.

“Retail is an extremely dynamic industry and it is important to build right competencies. Leveraging on the supply chain abilities of the group as well as their domain knowledge and relationships, we have been able to tie up the backend of this operation successfully,” said Mr Sanjive Sethi, CEO, Salora Retail Ventures Ltd. The retail stores are also expected to benefit Salora International’s LCD TV business.

More Stories on : Retailing | Brands | Consumer Electronics

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