GHCL to expand retail biz, Rosebys Franchise: Aloke Banerjee, CEO






GHCL's retail arm Rosebys Franchise plans to raise its stores to over 200 in India from 80 now by 2010/11 and spend 1.5 billion rupees over the next two years to build its brand, a top executive said on Friday. "A large part of the expansion will be under the franchise route," Rosebys chief executive Aloke Banerjee told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of a conference on home textiles.







The firm is targeting a presence across India with stores evenly spread across the metros as well as smaller towns and hopes to increase revenues five fold over the next four years. Retailers in India, recovering from the financial crunch are expanding their footprint and targeting the smaller towns in addition to the tier 1 cities. Raymond, for instance, has also announced an ambitious plan to open 300 stores by 2,011 most of them in smaller towns.



Banerjee said Rosebys India is expected to generate revenues of about 1 billion rupees for FY10, but he expects annual sales to reach 5 billion rupees over the next four years aided by its brand building and store additions. "Our biggest cost is on brand building and there will be no let down on that". Roseby which sells products such as bed linens and cushions is poised to benefit from rising demand for home textiles products in India, Banerjee said.



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