Calcutta, India
25
February 2008
Tata Steel will expand its retail network in the next one year: The company plans to increase the number of its steeljunction stores to 50 from five by March next year.
The company started steeljunction, its steel retail business, in 2005 from Calcutta. The existing stores are located in and around the city.
“We will expand more in the east and enter either the northern or the western part of the country next year,” retail initiative chief Sarvesh Kumar said. He said the company spent the last two years fine-tuning the retail model for future expansion.
Steeljunction provides items such as TMT bars, steel furniture and cooking utensils. It started with a 23,000-sq-ft store at Topsia on the Park Circus-Eastern Metropolitan Bypass connector. The company later set up four smaller stores of 1,800-3,000-sq-ft area around the big one.
The company will follow the same model in its future ventures — one large flagship store and smaller ones around it. The smaller stores will come up on franchisee basis.
The flagship stores will be built and managed by the company itself. The hub and spoke model will also help manage the supply chain. Big stores will provide back-end supply support to smaller ones.
The company is also choosy about the location of its stores. It has found out that Topsia is inconveniently located for the kind of customers it targeted. It has set up stores at Barasat and Shakuntala Park in Behala to cater to the local population.
There are also service agents on the store premises who offer home solutions or building items that are not available in the stores themselves.
Source :
www.telegraphindia.com
