Home Town sees turnaround

Kishore Biyani’s Future Group has seen a turnaround in home retailing after months of decline.

And the reason for this is improved consumer sentiments and focused merchandising plans. Home retailing was a laggard among the group’s flagship Pantaloon Retail’s three business segments — value, lifestyle and home.
But as business is improving, Home Town, Future Group’s home retailing chain is also opening new stores. Recently, they opened a sprawling store of over two lakh sq ft in Vikhroli, Mumbai. Future Group has invested Rs 30 crore on the store. It plans to open three more such stores in the country. At the moment, there are 10 Homes Towns.
Since November 2009, the home segment has seen a 10 per cent growth in sales. One reason for this is the increase in real estate activity. A lot of people are now buying new homes and this has had a direct impact on business. In terms of revenue growth, the home segment is likely to see a jump of 15 to 20 per cent in the current financial year. According to Vivek Biyani, Director, Home Solutions Retail (India) Ltd, which runs Home Town, the slowdown helped them to focus on individual categories and individual consumers. They followed a 360-degree approach to the business. And that worked well for the chain. The average spending in the stores have gone up by 8 to 10 per cent in January, compared to the same month last year. They are expecting it to go up to 20 per cent in the coming months.
Future Group is one of India’s leading business houses with multiple businesses spanning across the consumption space. While retail forms the core business activity of Future Group, group subsidiaries are present in consumer finance, capital, insurance, leisure and entertainment, brand development, retail real estate development, retail media and logistics.