Westside forays into gourmet food

As a part of its brand expansion plans, Tata-owned Westside, one of India's largest and fastest

growing chains of retail stores is now foraying into gourmet food and chocolate along with re-entering the automobile segment. It will now be taking bookings for Tata’s small car, Nano. Entering the gourmet food segment is a major investment for Westside as managing large quantities of perishable products such as fruits, vegetables, fish and meat needs a lot more energy, staff and monetary backing.

Gaurav Mahajan, COO, Westside feels it’s a big step forward for them. Though food is a lower margin and therefore tough business, they want consumers to enjoy an experience and to increase their footfalls. After test marketing the gourmet food format at its Kala Ghoda store in Mumbai, Westside plans to take Gourmet West and CocoaWest into other stores across the country. Gourmet West is very popular among health connoisseurs, stocking one of India's first signature restaurateur Chef Moshes’s breads, dips and sauces and imported sauces, confectionary among others.

Alongside this, Westside is reconsidering initiating sales of the Nano small car sector especially since its competitor Big Bazaar has also got the mandate to sell the car. Trent, the listed retail arm of Tata’s, which currently runs 53 Westside stores in the country, wants to hit the 100 store mark in four years. Trent recently appointed Philip Auld as its Chief Executive Officer (CEO) reporting to the board of directors. With the directors having already approved the appointment, Auld who has many years of international retail experience to his credit, is expected to join the company by the end of this month.

Established in 1998, as a part of Trent, Westside is one of the fastest growing chains of retail stores. It has numerous departments to meet the varied shopping needs of customers. These include menswear, women’s wear, kid’s wear, footwear, cosmetics, perfumes and handbags, household accessories, lingerie, and gifts. The company has 49 Westside departmental stores (measuring 15,000 - 30,000 sq. ft. each) in Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chandigarh, Chennai, Delhi, Gurgaon, Ghaziabad and Noida Hubli, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Kolkata among others. The company hopes to expand rapidly with similar format stores that offer a fine balance between style and price retailing.