Spencer’s inaugurates first hyper store in south Kolkata

Speaking today at the inauguration of Spencer’s first hyper store in the city at the South City mall in south Kolkata, Vice-Chairman Sanjiv Gornka said that Spencer’s will soon be opening another two hyper stores in Kolkata —- one at the Mani Square mall on the Bypass and the other at Rash Behari Avenue.

Besides, Spencer’s is also coming with an exclusive mall of its own at Beckbagan. “We are hoping to start construction within the next 6-8 weeks and plan to complete it in 20 months,” said Vice-president of the RPG group that owns the Spencer’s brand, Sanjiv Goenka. The mall will entail an investment of Rs 150 crore.

Goenka said that the RPG group also wants to open stores in districts across Bengal and was on the lookout for suitable properties.

“The response that we have got in our stores in Kolkata is phenomenal. Our stores have witnessed a 7-10 per cent increase in footfalls over the last one year,” said the vice president — Marketing of Spencer’s Retail Ltd Samar Shiekhawat.

At present, Spencer’s has 400 retail stores in the country, of which 20 stores are in Kolkata.

The new hyper store that was inaugurated in the city is the largest under the Spencer’s brand.

It occupies an area of 72,000 square feet and has more than 70,000 stock-keeping units (SKUs). The store has come up at a total investment of Rs 65 crore.

Spencer’s plans to add another 400-500 stores in this year. “The current turnover from our retail operations under the Spencer’s brand amounts to around Rs 100 crore per month and there is a 10-12 per cent growth in revenues every month. We expect this figure to touch Rs 250 crore per month by March 2009,” said Goenka.

He said that Spencer’s performance was well above the average performance of the retail industry.