Exactly a year later after retailer Indiabulls bought Piramyd Retail from the Ashok Piramal Group, the company is re-working its retail strategy and is planning to enter most of the retail formats in the country.
Indiabulls has started looking at tapping the booming retail sector and is looking to open its first super-luxury store at the heart of Mumbai's shopping district of Parel, a stone's throw from Biyani's Big Bazaar and Pantaloons.
But luxury is not the only format, the company is rejigging its entire retail business. Indiabulls is looking to enter luxury, mid-size lifestyle and basic grocery store formats.
The company's management confirmed the news and said: “Piramyd was suffering from some incorrect decisions around store site selection, inventory, supply chain management and cash flow management. We saw potential in the business but knew from day one that the business will have to be restructured."
So after a flop beginning, the company has planned aggressive rollouts to double its footprint to 6 lakh sq ft in the next one year. Over the next two years it would also relaunch hypermart and convenience stores as Happy' stores.
As part of a corporate ‘rebranding’ in a phased manner within the current financial year, it is also looking to relaunch the lifestyle format.
But analysts say with little retail experience, Indiabulls might be just looking to monetise its surplus land through retail. However, thinning footfalls could be a big concern going forward.
This is not the first time, Indiabulls is betting big on retail. A year back, the company bought a majority stake in Piramyd Retail and with it came seven lifestyle retail stores – Piramyd Megastore and over 35 convenience store chain called Trumart. But now, most of their stores have been either shut down or relocated.
What was unfortunate was the market shot up and retailers came to the market and developers, who were not funded enough.
While experts blame the market, competition in the market is still going fiercer and with new players planning to enter both luxury and value formats, Indiabulls will have a huge task ahead to pull their retail strategy this time around.