DLF Brands, planning a major expansion has unveiled the plan of opening these stores by 2012-13 with an investment of Rs 7.5 billion. The company also plans to bring around 15 international labels in the country in next five years.
"We presently have 11 stores of seven foreign brands in Delhi, of which four are JVs. We will be opening another 40-50 stores across the country by end of 2009 and plan to take the total number of stores to 600 by 2012-13," Kelvin Coyle, managing director, DLF Brands is reported to have said.
DLF Brands has formed a JV with Italian menswear brand Boggi and Italian luggage brand Piquadro. It has franchise agreement with Italian apparel and accessories brands Alcott, Sia Home Fashion of France and leading sunglass retailer Sun Glass Hut.
"The company will need around Rs 2,000-2,500 for each square feet of retail space and the total retail space would be of 0.25 million square feet," Coyle said.
Owned by K P Singh, DLF has already entered the hospitality sector by tying in with hospitality majors like Hilton.
It is not clear how much of the plans would be carried out according to the declared policy. The company shares have dropped around 80% from their recent high. There is a tremendous liquidity crunch in the realty sector and DLF is no exception. Since they would plan to use the space within the new malls that they build, there is every possibility that there would be delays in execution of those projects. It would be interesting to see how much of their planned expansion they will be able to achieve.
Retail sector is undergoing through a lean patch, especially the luxury segment which is a significant chunk of the retail portfolio planned.
|