February 26: As a part of its expansion plan even as the setback of the pandemic continues, departmental store chain Shoppers Stop has added another 5 stores as of now during the current financial year. Along with this, Shoppers Stop is planning to add another 12 to 15 stores over a period of the next 9 months.
This information was disclosed by Venugopal Nair, MD & CEO of Shoppers Stop while he was speaking on the sidelines of the Retail Leadership Summit 2021 organised by the Retailers Association of India.
Nair claimed that the company is foreseeing growth is the upcoming period with each passing month. He also mentioned that the average bill value per customer is even higher now and improving.
On the contrary, Also Read: Shoppers Stop witnesses huge net losses of Rs 25 crore in December quarter
He further added, “We are looking to open 12 to 15 stores in the next nine months. We did close down three stores in this financial year but that cannot be attributed to Covid as it was part of the annual rationalisation of our portfolio. Normally December is a better month than January, but this time we saw higher footfalls in January than in December. That is a good sign that consumers are continuing to come back. Consumer confidence has improved with the vaccines being rolled out. We intend to carry forward some of the steps we took to save costs. These measures helped us become a more efficient and productive organisation.”
The company went for several cost-saving measures under the pandemic. Further, Nair added that the lockdown granted the company an opportunity to witness and improvise the areas that could be streamlined.