The retail stores owned by the Tata group under the brand name of Croma, are yet to expand further with around 50 more stores in coming five years which will be taking the Infiniti Retail store chain to a number of 140.
The GST would be playing a significant role in this expansion of stores as a company official has indicated that tier 2 and tier 3 cities will be considered in this plan and concentrate on the existing market portfolio to extend the services of their stores.
Infiniti Retail Ltd CMO Ritesh Ghosal told that “We are planning to add one store every year for next couple of years… By FY 2020-21 we would have a network of around 140 stores. Once GST comes in, it would change our value chain significantly.”
He also added, “We are expanding in the cities in which we are operating. In Delhi, we have added three stores from April this year. Currently, we would concentrate on the existing markets because we are enjoying a very healthy growth.”
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Except for Kolkatta, 90 Croma stores are operating in top seven cities of India, and each store gets an investment of INR 2 crores in its initial setup. The Croma is operational from ten years and pursuing omnichannel system integrating its brick-mortar offering within the e-commerce platform.
The official said that the online transactions share in the total sales of Croma is less than 5 percent, also the organizations are seeking a good festival sales. Mr. Ghosal mentioned that “We are enjoying a good year so far. We are continuously growing from April and this festive season we expect a growth rate in double digits, There is a lot of excitement in the smartphone category. We also expect good sales from smart TV and home appliances as refrigerator, AC and washing machine,”
The wait of GST is certainly luring the Tata as they have again and again emphasized on expansion plans in tier 2 and tier 3 cities as the words itself defined that, “We are waiting for GST to come in… That will help us to expand.”
