Welspun to open 300 stores in two years

Welspun Retail, part of the Rs 4,000 crore Welspun Group, wants to get onto the big retail bandwagon. The company plans to open 300 new stores in the next one and a half year, reports CNBC-TV18.

Dipali Goenka, Head, Welspun's retail business, has her eye set only on selling home linens. In the last one year, she has gone from having 34 to now having 200 retail stores. In the next year, 300 more are being planned.

“We are going pan-India, from cities like Balaya to Gorakhpur and from Aizawl to Siliguri and Vizag," said Goenka.

By the end of next year, about three quarters of Welspun stores will be in non-metro cities, mostly via the franchisee route. The company expects to break even by 2008 and money flow to increase once 500 stores are in place.

"We are looking at Rs 200 crore coming in 2009 from Welspun Retail and in 2011, we should get about Rs 1,000 crore turnover," Goenka added.

The company says it is looking at an IPO by the end of next year.