The Future Group unit, which houses books, music, toys and stationery, currently has eight standalone stores along with 55 shop-in-shops with Pantaloons and Big Bazaar.
The Future Group unit eyes tie-ups with overseas book publishers
MUMBAI: The one-and-half-year-old retail format, Depot, is all set to take its first steady steps. This Future Group unit, which houses books, music, toys, gifts and stationery, currently has eight standalone stores along with 55 shop-in-shops with Pantaloons and Big Bazaar.
By the end of the year, it plans to boost the number to 100, with 15 standalone stores and another 85 points-of-sale. Books seem to be the clear revenue-earner for Depot as it contributes about 35% of total revenues; about 25% is contributed by music and the rest comes from toys, gifts and stationery items. The size of book market in India is estimated in the range of Rs 3,000-4,000 crore.
Preeti Vyas, business head, Depot, said: “Last year in June we began to realise that there were a lot of demand for a lot of different books, which either the existing trade was unable to supply or did not have those products. There were two types of books available in the market — the pirated ones, which are low in cost but are very low in quality as well. On the other hand, the good quality books are also available but are steeply priced. We also found out that good quality regional production was also not available.
Therefore, we started publishing our own books under the Depot brand name. So far, we have launched around 100 books and majority of them are books for children. We believe that in any growing economy kids are the beneficiary. ”
“We also have a range of books for adults, for whom we have commissioned authors like Nita Mehta, Sanjeev Kapoor and so on. We have also published books on Gujarati and Marathi literature. All the books have been priced between Rs 49 and Rs109. So there are two things that we kept in mind while entering this business - low pricing but high quality products,” Vyas added.
However, after exploring Indian books for over a year now, Depot is eyeing international tie-ups. Following a visit to the Frankfurt Book Fair where publishers get a platform to acquire rights, Depot has tied-up with a company called ‘Small World’, which specialises in books for kids’ up to the age group of seven. For this particular tie-up, the content ideation is done in the UK and the production and printing is done in China.
Vyas added: “It is co-publishing deal that we have with Small World. For any such deal $2,000-3,000 are paid in advance and the rest of the revenue sharing depends upon the sale.”
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