V Mart Retail in 100 New Cities by End of Next Fiscal

V Mart Group’s flagship company V Mart Retail, a company engaged in hyper market stores, is chalking out retail expansion plans for the brand. They plan to expand to 100 cities by the end of fiscal year 2011, which would take the total retail area to over 10 lakh sq. ft. in Tier II and Tier III cities.

Lalit Agarwal, Managing Director, V Mart Retail states, “We want to go to Tier II and Tier III cities like Basti, Behraich Balia, Faizabad, Aligarh in UP and Bengusarai in Bihar. These are districts that have a huge potential.” With an average area of 10,000 to 15,000 sq. ft. the company has an impressive chain of 52 fully integrated stores in 45 cities.

 

Maintaining the highest standards in quality and design, these stores have come to offer the finest fashion garments at down-to-earth prices. Under the name V Mart, the company has produced a number of successful brands like Charcol (men’s wear), Jwhite (formal men’s wear), Jinxx (casual women and men’s western wear), Grrovy Kids (kid’s wear brand), Cruxx (Indo-western women’s wear), Fellow (premium formal and party wear for men), Kool (women’s casual wear), Needle (formal economy men’s wear), Sword (formal wear), Adya (ethnic wear), Appache (funky casual men’s wear) and Quasi private labels sourced from other manufacturers. Agarwal opines, “We have three formats. One is the V-Mart mini-hyper kind of format, where we provide all the products at the store including groceries. The second format is the fashion format. And then we have a format called V-Galz, which is exclusively women’s western wear that’s not usually available in the market. We launch formats where we can create value and where the manageability and product profile are unique. We don’t want to roll out too many models just for PR activities.”

The saga of V Mart Group dates back to 2003 when its directors foresaw the emerging potentials in the retail industry. They introduced the barcode and the ERP system at a time when organized retail was virtually unknown in India. Imbibing its innovative concepts and techniques the Group identified the vast scope of growth in retailing for the common man. “My target customer earns between Rs 8,000 to Rs 16,000. Nearly 75 to 85 per cent of India’s population falls in our category. This summer we have launched a cotton festival, where we are giving the customer the maximum range in cotton. We are promoting a pastel range this season,” explains Agarwal.

In addition to garments, the company has in-house products like apparels, FMCG and general merchandise. The company has also added watches, sunglasses, fashion accessories, gifts and novelties, electrical appliances, perfumes and the like to its product portfolio.