Retail chain Piramyd in mega spread plan

Piramyd, the retailing arm of Piramal Enterprises, has chalked out an aggressive expansion strategy to open 20 mega departmental stores that will catapult its revenues from a current Rs 65 crore (Rs 650 million) to Rs 1,000 crore (Rs 10 billion) in the next five years, according to Urvi A Piramal, vice chairperson, Piramal Enterprises.

The company, which has three Piramyd stores in Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur, is in the process of finalising eight more locations in northern India.

Piramyd is planning to gradually move into other major cities like Bangalore, Chennai, Ahmedabad and Kolkata. The company is being guided in its expansion plans by the retail consultancy KSA-Technopak.

"At present we are funding our expansions through borrowings and internal accruals, but we'll also look at going public sometime later," said Piramal.

"The spending power of consumers in Delhi and northern states like Punjab is growing immensely and we expect nearly Rs 300 crore (Rs 3 billion) of revenues from this region in the next five years," said Piramal.

The new Piramyd stores coming up at five locations in Delhi and one each in Chandigarh, Ludhiana and Jallandhar will have a combined space of 600,000 square feet.

Piramyd is looking to be the anchor tenant at upcoming malls in these cities. The stores, which will cost company Rs 50 crore (Rs 500 million) are expected to reach completion in the next 6 to 12 months.

"Our store will not just be departmental store but also a complete family entertainment destination with food courts and live performances," said Piramal. Grocery and apparel retail is likely to generate the volumes at Piramyd.

"We have developed strong in-store fashion brands in Mumbai, but we will also get some very well known international brands to have an exclusive presence at Piramyd stores," she said.

The first Piramyd store which started operating as the anchor store at the Piramal group promoted mall, Crossroads, in Mumbai in 1999 has footfalls of nearly 400,000 a day and sales of Rs 40 crore (Rs 400 million).

"We are sure that stores in Delhi will give us similar sales. Those in cities like Chandigarh and Ludhiana have the potential to generate sales of Rs 25 crore (Rs 250 million) a year," said Piramal.