Reliance draws up plans for a wider Footprint

Will increase count of large-format footwear stores 15-fold in 3-4 years

MUMBAI: Reliance Footprint Ltd (RFL) has chalked out plans to set up 150 large-format stores across the country by 2011.

RFL will be investing around Rs 750 crore to increase the count of its stores by 15 times in the next 3-4 years.

The company has already invested Rs 50 crore in 10 stores across southern, northern and western regions of the country.

Gopalakrishnan Sankar, chief executive officer, RFL, said the immediate target will be to have 25 stores in this financial year.

“Thereafter, we will be opening 30 stores each year to reach our target of 150 stores. All the new outlets will be large-format ones and will have areas ranging from 7,000 sq ft to 10,000 sq ft. We will be targeting all metro and mini-metro cities,” Sankar said.

On an average, each store will cost RFL around Rs 5 crore, which includes lease rentals, interiors, inventory, manpower and other fixed expenditure.

The expansion will be funded through internal resources. The average cost is expected to remain the same despite talks of a decline in lease rentals.

“We have started seeing some correction in lease rentals but it is still a long way to go for the rates to become reasonable,” Sankar said.

The first Reliance Footprint store was started in Bangalore in the second half of 2007. The company currently has outlets in Hyderabad, Delhi, Noida, Mangalore and Ludhiana.

Reliance Footprint’s Mumbai launch was followed by two more launches — one each in Cochin and Jaipur — on the same day.

Going forward, RFL will concentrate mainly on the three regions that it is currently present in while continuing its hunt for ideal locations in the eastern region. It will open around 50 stores in the western region alone, with at least 10 outlets in Mumbai.

The footwear store will offer customers a choice of 20,000 stock keeping units, which will include domestic and international brands and private labels, too. Products will be priced in the range of Rs 299 and Rs 6,000 and above.

The company plans to increase the share of its private labels to 50% of the total inventory in the coming years. The category currently constitutes one-third of its total inventory.

“Our private label brands will be 30% cheaper than any other competitor brand. We will be also launching therapeutic footwear for people with any deformity. It is being introduced under the Tender Sole brand,” Sankar said.

t_ashish@dnaindia.net