By IANS,
Hyderabad : Infiniti Retail Ltd, a 100 percent subsidiary of Tata Sons, plans to open 20 Croma stores with an investment of Rs.600-800 million (Rs.60-80 crore) in 2009-10, a top official said Thursday.
“The opening of 20 Croma stores by March 2010 will take the total number of stores across the country to 50,” Infiniti Retail chief executive and managing director Ajit Joshi told reporters after opening two Croma stores here.
Tata Sons has invested Rs.2.2 billion in this multi-brand durables and electronics chain.
The company opened two mega stores in Jubilee Hills and Panjagutta areas here, each measuring 25,000 square feet and offering more than 6,000 products across a wide range of product categories.
It plans to open a third store in Himayatnagar and ramp up the total number of stores in Hyderabad to seven.
Infiniti, which launched the first Croma store in Mumbai in 2006, presently has stores in Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Pune, Surat, Baroda, Bangalore and Delhi. It soon plans to open Croma Zip at Delhi airport.
Joshi said Croma had also launched in-house private label brand ‘Croma Laptops’. The home series and entertainment series laptops are available in the price range of Rs.32,999-42,999.
The other Croma products include wine coolers, split air conditioners, vacuum cleaners and mini massagers. “We plan to launch our brand in other categories like entertainment and IT,” Joshi said.
He added that the company hoped its private label brand would grow 20 percent in the next financial year.
Infiniti has technical and sourcing agreements with Australian retail giant Woolworths Ltd. The Australian firm provides technical support and strategic sourcing facilities from its global network.