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

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

Ahmedabad, Dec. 15 Rosebys Interiors India Ltd — part of the $700-million GHCL Ltd, a multinational company owned by the Sanjay Dalmia group — plans to open about 500 retail outlets in 18 months, including 150 by March 2009.

The company has signed on actress Soha Ali Khan as its brand ambassador.

Rosebys stores would be concept stores and this brand would take the franchisee route but the standard of the stores would be consistent. Announcing this after inaugurating three stores here, Mr Aloke Banerjee, Chief Executive Officer, said the London-based home décor and lifestyle products company with 320 stores across the UK was acquired by the Dalmias in 2006.

Its India operations, which began in Punjab and West Bengal with eight and two stores respectively in October 2008, would now be expanded to Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, with 20 stores each before end of January 2009.

In Gujarat, Rosebys plans to open 20 stores in a year, including at Rajkot, Vadodara and Surat soon, with a string of brand promotion activities advertising the catchline “affordable luxury”.

The brand would offer 40 to 50 combinations of home textiles, like bed-sheets, in a price range between Rs 799 and Rs 2,500.

Besides, it would also offer home décor articles priced between Rs 199 and Rs 8,000.

The company would procure its material from GHCL’s two manufacturing plants at Vapi (Gujarat) and Tamil Nadu.

Rosebys has also tied up with companies in Thailand, China, Indonesia and Hong Kong for supplies and its design centres are located in India and the UK.

Mr Banerjee said Rosebys, which has 900 major clients globally, promises to deliver a world-class experience and contemporary range of products to the modern Indian woman’s home.

It will launch with four basic thematic product ranges — Indulgence, Eco Chic, Geo Retro and Peony Garden. Each of these would have a different concept and an entire product range.

With organised retailing said to be growing at 30 per cent annually, there is a huge untapped market for the home décor and lifestyle stores in India which is pegged at around Rs 15,000 crore.

Only 7 per cent of it is in the organised sector.

More Stories on : Retailing | Interiors & Homes

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