Shoppers Stop to invest Rs40 cr to open 4 stores in FY10

Mumbai: Lifestyle retailer Shoppers Stop will invest about Rs 40 crore in the current fiscal to roll out 3-4 stores in the country even as it grapples with negative sales margins and shuts unviable stores in other verticals.

“We have just opened our 27th store in Hyderabad and we plan to open 3-4-stores this fiscal at an investment of Rs 10-crore each,” Shoppers Stop’s Customer Care associate and managing director B S Nagesh said.

The K Raheja group company currently operates 27 stores pan-India and apart from the planned 3-4-stores, has also signed agreements for more and hence could end the year with 30-35-stores, Nagesh said.

The expansion is being funded through internal accruals, he said.

The BSE-listed company expects the pain of the downturn to last another six months.

“There is definitely another two quarters of pain left. We expect a turnaround in the January-March quarter of 2010. But, we see margins improving from October-December because of the festival season,” Nagesh said.