On last Tuesday, Spencer’s Retail announced that it will open around 10 to 15 new stores every year as it is focusing at the hyper format for the next few years. Regarding this plan Sector Head of Retail of RP-Sanjiv Goneka Group Shashwat Goenka claimed that they are planning to add 10 to 15 stores every year mostly in the hyper format over the next few years. For this fiscal year ending March 2015, Spencer’s Retail will add nine new stores against 11 stores that were added in the last fiscal.
The executive when asked about the capex plans claimed that to open a store they will have to invest around Rs 3.5 crore. On this basis, Spencer’s Retail that is a part of the RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group will have to invest between Rs 40 crore and Rs 60 crore each year to execute its plan of adding 10 to 15 stores annually.
For now, the retail arm operates 126 stores spread over 40 cities across the country. Of these 126 stores, 33 of them are in large format. Spencer’s Retail shut down operations on numerous small format stores in the past.
The report adds that when questioned about the West Bengal Agricultural Produce Marketing (Regulation) Amendment Bill 2014 that lets direct procurement of produce from farmers, Goenka did not comment anything.
In the meantime, Spencer’s Retail has also come up with the Spencer’sMobileapplication on Tuesday that provides shoppers an all new shopping experience at the retail chain.
The executive further added that after a specific research, the retail chain got to know that customers in specific areas were not satisfied. With a consumer centric focus, the retail chain desires to revolutionize the way customers shop and this mobile application is believed to provide a significant step in establishing a value based, one on one relationship with the shoppers. He also stated that the application has been designed to provide a convenient interface to shoppers to keep them updated with the happenings in the Spencer’s stores.
