Retail Roundup

Reliance Retail said it will launch the first outlet of its opticals chain stores, Vision Express, under a joint venture with Pearle Europe, by September this year in Bangalore.Earlier, Reliance Retail had announced the opticals chain would comprise independent stores and stores within Reliance Retail’s other formats such as Hypermart, Super and Wellness.The new entity would bring world-class retail opticals stores to India, with a range of private label frames, lenses, sunglasses, contact lenses and solutions.Pearle Europe is a subsidiary of HAL Investments, the European investment subsidiary of HAL Holding NV, an international investment company based in the Netherlands Antilles.It operates 2,200 optical retail stores in 21 countries across Europe and West Asia. HAL Investments also owns a number of opticals retail chains in emerging markets, such as China, Russia, Turkey and Brazil.
The Welspun group’s retail venture is embarking on a major expansion with plans to invest Rs 150 crore over next three years for setting up 160 new stores under different formats, while it gets ready to supplying overseas.Welspun Retail, the group’s retail arm, is planning to increase the number of its Welhome (targeted at the middle segment) and Spaces (in the high-end range) stores. The plan is to open 100 additional Welhome and 60 more Spaces stores across the country, up from the present figures of 220 and 25.With the expansion plans underway, the company is looking to increase turnover to Rs 200 crore during the current fiscal and reach a figure of Rs 1,000 crore by 2011-12.While the new Welhome stores would mostly be set up in tier-II and tier-III cities, the company’s expan sion of the Spaces’ format would focus on the metros and major tier-I cities.The two formats have a presence in 116 cities in India. The company is also planning to introduce a series of new products.Among the new ones will be reversible curtains, quick-dry towels and low-maintenance bed sheets in the Welhome stores, and microbial bed sheets, which will be available in Spaces.
Retail chain Subhiksha said it plans to open 1,000 more outlets by the end of this year. The company would add stores primarily in tier-I and tier-II cities.