Shoppers Stop to open 24 stores by FY14

Buoyed by rapid growth in the retail industry, K Raheja Group-owned Shoppers Stop plans to open 24 stores by FY14, a senior company official said.

"We plan to open 24 new stores in the next three years. To start with, we would be opening eight-nine Shoppers Stop stores in the current fiscal," Group Chief Financial Officer, C B Navalkar told PTI.

Presently, the company has 38 stores across the country, with a total retail space of about 2.3-million square feet.

"The retail industry is growing by around 30-35% every year. We estimate that by FY14, we will have 62 stores operational with a total retail space of 3.6-million square feet. Apart from expanding in metros, we will also enter Tier-II cities," he said.

Apart from the Shoppers Stop departmental stores, the company has five specialty retail formats like Home Stop (home furnishing), Mothercare (baby care), Crosswords (books & music), Estee Lauder (cosmetics) and Mac (cosmetics).

The company is also present in the hypermarket space at 9 locations across the country through its 51% subsidiary-