Trent's Star Bazaar on fast track

Star Bazaar is jumping on a fast-track route to expansion after four years of laggard growth.
Noel Tata, managing director, Star Bazaar, feels this is just the right time to open value stores.
“We will roll out 50 stores in the next five year with an investment of Rs 2,000 crore. We have already signed deals for 25 locations, all of which are in metro cities.”Also, with high input cost pressures gnawing at margins, the only way to survive in retail industry is though scale, Tata said.“The best way to drive the costs down is to open more stores quickly. Till now we had been able to absorb the pressure of rising raw material and staff costs, but now we have to take steps to minimise the impact,” he said.Star Bazaar was started in 2004 when Trent opened the first hypermarket store in Ahmedabad.It has since then opened a store each in Bangalore and Mumbai. Star Bazaar is a low-priced, discount-based hypermarket, which is usually spread over 75,000 square feet. Real estate was the main cause for Star Bazaar’s slow growth pace, Tata said. “Finding the right property was very difficult and then there were too many project delays. Our Bangalore store opened a year and half late. Besides, we wanted to refine our format before expanding.”Apart from changes in the store layout and fixtures, a bakery and a live-food section has also been added to pull crowds. The new sections will also help in improving the margins, which are quite frail for retailers owing to sky-high rentals.Star Bazaar has its own set of private labels that contribute up to 30% of its total revenues.It has an entire apparel and footwear section where it houses its own brands, which are different form those available at Westside, its sister concern.