Mark Ashman quits Hypercity

Mark Ashman has quit as Chief Executive of Hypercity, Shoppers Stop’s hypermarket chain, after three and a half years at its helm.

This comes at a time when the company has undertaken several initiatives such as reducing store size to turn around the loss-making company. Hypercity, which runs 15 stores, is looking at an Ebitda (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) break-even this financial year. At the net-profit level, it expects to break-even next year. About two months ago, Ashutosh Chakradeo, Chief Merchandising Officer of Hypercity, had quit.

Ashman has spent about six years in the Indian retail segment. Earlier, he was Chief Executive of Marks & Spencer in India. Globally, he had a stint of about six years at Marks & Spencer, in various capacities. As international Managing Director of the company, he led the strategic review of Indian market opportunities, short-listed an Indian partner and oversaw the formation of Reliance and M&S joint venture.

In the third quarter, ended December 31, Shoppers Stop including HyperCity, HomeStop, Mothercare, Crossword and MAC reported a 5.5 percent like-to-like growth lower than the double-digit growth in the earlier two quarters -15.5 per cent in the September quarter and 12 per cent in the June quarter respectively. The company’s stand-alone net profit for the quarter stood at Rs 17.34 crore, a jump of 1.5 per cent year-on-year. However, on a consolidated basis, net profit was way lower at Rs 5 crore due to losses at HyperCity. The HyperCity format has taken longer than expected to break-even and the parent company is trying several methods to bounce back in the country.