Piramyd charts expanded retail recipe

PRL is building 5 Megastores — its lifestyle chain — one each in Ahmedabad, Ludhiana, East Delhi and two in Pune as well as 16 Trumarts — its FHPC (food, home and personal care) shops — in and around Mumbai and Pune. The company will unveil four more Megastores in Delhi next year, work for which has already begun, said Iyer.

PRL would continue its branching out by targeting a total 149 stores by 2010, he said. Adding muscle, Iyer said, will push the company’s revenues from Rs 69 crore to Rs 220 crore by the year-end.

Ambitious plans that these are, the Rs 69-crore company will leverage promoters’ funds as well as debt to fuel the first level of expansion. Eventually, for the larger blueprint, the company would tap the markets this year itself, Iyer said.

According to Iyer, the present expansion is part of a larger strategy to emerge as one of the three largest retail players in the country. ‘‘Retail is booming and it is a profitable and scalable business. Hence the expansion,’’ Iyer said.

Analysts agree. ‘‘Of the 19.5 million sq ft of retail space built in the 6 metros till 2006, 14.5 million sq ft has already been leased out. The numbers show that the scope here is tremendous,’’ said Anuj Puri, MD, Chesterton Meghraj, a real estate consultant. The expansion gives PRL visibility, crucial to becoming a noted player, he said.

Just as some analysts are scoffing at the talk of waning interest in malls, PRL is relentlessly enthusiastic about the concept. ‘‘Choosing the right locale is crucial to setting up stores. In the last two years, we’ve been doing exactly that,’’ PRL COO Bipin Gurnani said. He cites Delhi and Ludhiana as examples where the peoples’ purchasing power is phenomenal.

Besides buying and selling its own merchandise, arming itself with other concepts like a full-line departmental store that includes even tailoring and aligning with domestic and foreign retailers will ensure good returns, Gurnani said.