Footprint for footfalls

Ask anybody who’s the retailer with the widest reach in the country, and the predictable answers would be: 1. Reliance, with its 600-odd outlets (most of them Reliance Fresh ones). 2. Future Group, with some 90 Big Bazaars, 135 Food Bazaars, 102 Indus League formats, and an assortment of specialty retail outlets. Few would venture to consider the Tatas as a formidable force in organised retail.

But the group might just be that. Consider: By 2010, the group will have at least 700 outlets, across formats and categories, and of various sizes, going up to 50,000 sq. ft at the hypermarket end.

These include 100 Croma stores, which sell consumer durables and electronics (not including proposed smaller formats of 3,500-8,000 sq. ft in downtown and high-street locations in metros), up to 70 Westside stores (for affordable fashion), perhaps 25 hypermarkets, which go under the Star India Bazaar brand, and at least 10 Landmark book stores.

Here,there and everywhere The Tatas have their tentacles in various formats and categories. Brand/ Category/ No. of stores Croma/ Consumer durables 100 stores by 2010 Westside/ Apparel 60-70 by 2010 Star India Bazaar/ Hypermarket Three currently, 23 properties signed Landmark/ Book store 100 Westsides, Star India Bazaars and Landmarks by 2009-10 Tanishq / Jewellery 130 stores by year-end World of Titan/ Watches 333 stores by year-end

And don’t forget the Tanishq (jewellery) and The World of Titan (watches) stores—by the yearend, the former will have 130 stores and the latter 333. The biggest bang will, of course, come when Tata Motors rolls out its outlets to sell the Nano across the country.

These formats are across a range of companies—Croma for instance is under Infiniti Retail, a Tata Sons subsidiary, and Westside, Star India Bazaar and Landmark are under the Noel Tata-run Trent (the hypermarket business was recently spun off into a subsidiary).

But there’s a clear method at the group level. Ajit Joshi, CEO& MD, Infiniti Retail, points to the synergies that exist across formats, categories and companies. “Together we can easily occupy 50 per cent of a mall and provide value to mall owners that few others can.” Neeti Chopra, Head-Marketing, Trent, points to the example of a Croma store within a Star India Bazaar; or how Trent is working with Titan to tap into the latter’s franchise network.

“We run a franchised model, hence there is not much capex involved from our side. The investment in new showrooms will come from our franchisees,” says V. Govind Raj, Vice President, Retail & Marketing, Tanishq.

Taking a leaf out of the Tanishq game plan, Westside, too, plans to take the franchise route when expanding into Tier II and Tier III cities.

—Additional reporting by K.R. Balasubramanyam