Lifestyle International, a part of the Dubai-based Landmark Group, plans to take the number of its stores from the existing 73 across the country to 100 in the next two years.
The company is adding new Lifestyle stores at the rate of one per month. It was expanding the Home Centre store, focused on home furnishings, by opening five stores a year and planned to take their total to 50 by 2020, Vasanth Kumar, Managing Director of Lifestyle International Pvt Ltd (India) said on Thursday.
In an interaction, after the launch of Melange festive collection by actor Taapsee Pannu at the Lifestyle store in Begumpet, he said the estimated investment on a new Lifestyle store is ₹ 20 crore – with half of it towards the working capital – while it was ₹10 crore in the case of Home Centre.
Figuring in the list of upcoming stores are two each of Lifestyle and Home Centre in Gachibowli and Kukatpally. There are also plans to open Max apparel brand stores at a few Metro stations in the city.
To queries on sales and customer sentiment this festival season, he replied, “Festival [sales] will always be strong... don’t see any problem at all.” One aspect of worry for retailers has been drop in the peak purchase season that has come down now to about 40 days as opposed to what was for two months about seven years ago.
The reason for this, he explained, was people making purchases through the year. But it has led to an increase in the overall consumption of textiles, he added.
A release said the Melange collection brings together the latest trends in apparels, footwear, and accessories for the festive season.
