• Investment World
• eWorld
• Brand Line
• Mentor
• Life
• Brand Quest
• The New Manager
• BL Club
• Smartbuy

Stocks

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

Cross Currency

• Rates
  
  

Shipping

• Ports
  
  

Archives

• Yesterday
• Datewise
• Resources
• In Focus
• In Depth
• Events 2007

Group Sites

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

Our Bureau

New Delhi, Nov. 18 Kolkata-based RPG Enterprises Ltd is mulling an investment of Rs 1,500 crore by the end of 2009, for setting up 325 additional stores. The group which owns Spencer’s Retail said the robust growth witnessed during the last six months, has been hit by the global slowdown.

“You will not see a robust growth as we had expected six months ago. There is a slowdown. We have a problem of demand and liquidity. The banks are not lending despite having adequate funds,” Mr Sanjiv Goenka, Vice- Chairman, RPG Enterprises, told reporters on the sidelines of the India Economic Summit organised by the World Economic Forum here.

He said RPG had closed 56 economically unviable stores in the last quarter. “We have either relocated or will be opening new stores in the coming months. We are currently growing at 60 per cent despite shutting down some stores in the last few months.”

Spencer’s Retail currently has 400 stores across 66 cities in the country. He said the company is renegotiating rental prices as real-estate prices have fallen in the past few months.

On hiring, Mr Goenka said all new hiring have been put on hold. “We will be using internal accruals to fund our expansion. There have been no job cuts currently”.

More Stories on : Retailing | Human Resources

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

Copyright © 2008, 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