Westside launches speciality format for women, kids

NEW DELHI: The retail chain of Tata Group, Westside announced the launch of an exclusive format catering to women customers on Friday, while it also plans to create a separate division for kids wear.
    
"We have opened the new format 'Westside Woman' to expand our reach to women customers. These smaller speciality stores will help in establishing our presence where space to open full-fledged Westside store is not available," Trent Ltd Marketing Head Neeti Chopra said.
    
She said the company will open around 10 'Westside Women' stores in next 18 months, while speciality stores for kids would also come up in next few months.
    
"In the kids division, we plan to open 3-4 stores to start with, but will expand in future across the country," Chopra said.
    
Westside Woman will house merchandise for women that include -- SRC-youth wear, an elegant ethnic range, GIA (for the plus size women), lingerie, accessories and footwear.
    
Commenting on the expansion plan of 'Westside' stores, Chopra said, the company currently has 28 stores in cities across India, while by 2010 the number is likely to go up to 65.
    
The company is also aggressively looking at adopting franchise route to fuel its expansion plan for Westside stores. "We already have one franchise store operational in Mysore and the company is identifying tier II cities like Ranchi, Patna and Jabalpur to increase the number of such outlets," Chopra added.