Hypercity to increase store count to 12 by ’11

Hypercity the third retail unit of the K Raheja Retail Group is keen on expanding its retail presence across the country. The four-year-old retail chain opened its first store in Mumbai and later added seven stores – three in Mumbai -- Malad, Vashi and Thane --

and in Jaipur, Amritsar, Hyderabad and Bangalore. Recently, Shoppers Stop took a 51 per cent stake in the company. So currently it’s a subsidiary of Shoppers Stop. Their retail chain has now worked out an expansion plan which includes opening five new stores within the fiscal ’11. The first store will be opened in Bhopal by October 14. The other stores will be located in Ahmedabad, Pune, Ludhiana and Bangalore. With these five stores, Hypercity will become a 12-store chain by the end of 2011.

“The difference between our format and the competition is that we are much bigger in size. Our average store size is 75,000 sq. ft. and above. And most of our anchor stores in metros are more than one lakh sq. ft.,” says Ashutosh Chakradeo, Head – Buying & Merchandising. “We have broken even operationally at the EBIDTA (Earnings Before Interest Taxes Depreciation and Amortization) level last year and our objective is to continue the same and to have an operational break-even in the next two years,” adds Chakradeo.

Meanwhile, Mark Ashman who until recently was the CEO of Marks and Spencer Reliance Retail JV has now joined Hypercity as the new CEO. “He has worked with M&S for several years and has seen how the company moves from a start-up gestation point to maturity. Also he has worked in India for the last three years and has an understanding of the Indian market and the consumers. So for the growth of Hypercity, Ashman has a lot to do and achieve. His agenda is to drive profitable growth.”  

Their retail format consists of home electronics, the leisure category, apparel and accessories, food et al.  “Our apparel is entirely private label. Overall 20 per cent of Hypercity’s business is from private labels. We get the apparel outsourced but the design is done by us,” he says. In apparel, they have men’s wear, women’s wear and kid’s wear.

Hypercity is among the very few retailers who in last year’s recession have expanded by putting in three more stores rather than closing stores. The retail chain also has loyalty program called Discovery Club started a year back. It has more than one lakh customers and 35 per cent of their sales come from it. Last year they closed at Rs 310 crores and this year they are looking at a turnover of more than Rs 600 crores.