'Shoppers Stop may hike clothing prices' – Mr Shrikhande

18 Mar '11

2 min read

Retail chain Shoppers Stop is likely to hike the prices of its goods by around six to seven percent, from April this year.

This may be done to counterbalance the 10 percent excise duty imposition on branded apparels in the 2011-12 Budget.

Govind Shrikhande, Customer Care Associate and Managing Director of Shoppers Stop said that, they were trying to persuade the Central Government to withdraw the duty, but nothing has materialized yet, and if the duty stands, they may hike the product prices by six to seven percent.

Further, there has also been a rise in the prices of the raw materials, which too has put additional burden on the companies, he added.

However, he said that the industry players are optimistic that the government would positively respond to their demands and if not withdraw, at least reduce the duty percentage.

Speaking about the firm's future plans, he said that they intend to spend Rs. 4.5 billion over the next four years, for adding new outlets to the company's already existing network of 36 exclusive Shoppers Stop outlets and eight Hypercity stores, spread across India.

He revealed that, they intend to grow the number of their Shopper's Stop outlets to 60 and Hypercity stores to 26, over the next four years.

Informing further he said that, the company plans to spend Rs. 2.5 billion for launching new Shoppers Stop outlets, while two billion rupees would be spent for the Hypercity stores.

Whereas the Shoppers Stop stores are particularly into apparel and fashion, Hypercity stores are large format departmental stores.

Fibre2fashion News Desk - India

More Shoppers Stop News... More Apparel/Garments News - India...