NEW DELHI, Sept 1: Value fashion and lifestyle products retailer V-Mart Retail would hire 2,000 people and invest Rs 115 crore this fiscal to expand its footprint, a top company official said.
The retailer, which mainly operates in tier-II and III cities, plans to add around 60 stores this fiscal, taking its total count to 275.
The company also expects the contribution of its private labels to increase to around 75 per cent of total sales, from 70 per cent currently.
“We have plans to add 60 stores this year (fiscal) in our network, taking the total count to 275,” V-Mart Retail Chairman and Managing Director Lalit Agarwal said.
“We would hire around 2,000 people this fiscal to enhance our back-end support and manpower,” he said, adding that the company presently has 7,000 employees.
In 2018-19, V-Mart Retail Ltd had posted a revenue of Rs 1,433.75 crore.
V-Mart has already opened 20 new stores this fiscal and now operates 233 outlets.
The company plans to open new stores in Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha and north eastern states, besides markets like Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.
“We would be investing around Rs 1.5 crore per store (on average) and additionally invest around Rs 25 crore in warehouses and training of staff etc,” he said. “The investment would primarily come from internal accruals and some from debts from financial institutions.”
Agarwal said 75 per cent of V-Mart’s stores are located in just four states—Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand and Bihar.
“Consumption levels are much higher in the markets we operate in. These markets are under-served. We will continue to go deeper and focus on tier II, III and IV towns as we expand and we will also keep on adding new states,” he added.
The company is also working on an omni-channel retail strategy by integrating offline stores with its online e-commerce portal.
“We have piloted it in some of the stores and would soon implement it pan India by the end of this fiscal,” he added.
V-Mart, which opened its first store in 2004 in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, now has presence in 18 states.
Last month, V-Mart Retail had opened three new stores in Nagaland, Jharkhand and Rajasthan. (PTI)
Follow our WhatsApp channel