Infiniti Retail plans 100 Croma stores by FY11

Croma, the electronics retail chain run by the Tata group under its wholly owned subsidiary Infinity Retail Ltd, on Wednesday announced it will give a major thrust to its private label portfolio and open 18 stores this year.

The stores will be opened in the cities where Croma is already present — Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Delhi, R K Krishna Kumar, director, Tata Sons and chairman, Infiniti Retail, said.

By FY11, Croma is expecting to reach 100 stores mark from the current 52 stores. “We want to first saturate the markets we are present in and become a dominant player. We are still not present in the east of India. FY 2011-12 will, however, be a year of major national expansion for Croma. We are also looking at the Croma Zip format (at airports) to get a greater fillip in a few months,” Kumar said.

The company has infused Rs 220 crore this year as capex and will spend Rs 150 crore towards opening of 18 stores. It is expanding its private label products stable ‘Handpicked by Croma’ by adding categories like netbooks, LCD panels, DVD players and jewellery cleaners. The retailer plans to make products available across 100 categories by March 2010 and is expecting Rs 100 crore turnover by 2011 from private labels. 

The retail chain is seeing same store sales growth of 14-15% month-on-month. The company’s turnover is Rs 1,000 crore and each store roughly contributes Rs 30-35 crore per year. Ajit Joshi, chief operating officer, Infiniti Retail, said that the company is looking at breaking even next year.