Inside Companies: Shoppers Stop to double sales in 4yrs

Nachiket Kelkar
Moneycontrol.com

Shoppers Stop, among the oldest organised retailers in India, has embarked on an aggressive growth path amid growing competition from Indian as well multinational firms. It hopes to double turnover in less than four years as it expands its department store operations and strengthens the hypermarket chain HyperCity. The K Raheja Corp company started with just one format -- the department store Shoppers Stop. But as competition has increased and Indians have grown more affluent, it has tapped many other segments like Mothercare (new mother and infant apparels and goods), Estee Lauder (cosmetics), Crossword (books) and HyperCity (hypermarket) over the last few years. Shoppers Stop raised its stake in HyperCity to 51% from 19% in 2010 to become the majority shareholder in a bid to join a growing bandwagon of food and grocery retailers. The remaining 49% stake is held by the Rahejas. This expansion, it says, will help fulfill its strong growth ambitions. "(We are looking at) topline growth of 20-25% every year. So we should be double than today in less than four years time. That