Shoppers Stop to focus on revival of private labels

By

Maverick Martins

Published
May 2, 2018

K Raheja-owned retail chain Shoppers Stop is working towards the revival of its private labels and will work on the price and positioning of its brands. The company had a good year with net profit of Rs 12 crore (approx $2 million) as compared to Rs 20 crore (approx $3 million) losses it reported in the previous fiscal.
 

The company’s private label business however witnessed a slowdown and had a disappointing year. Shoppers Stop is now looking to focus on its private labels to improve margins during the current financial year.
 
Shoppers Stop expects its partnership with Amazon to boost sales of its private labels as most of its brands are expected to be sold online on Amazon Fashion. The company’s private label brands include Stop, Life, Kashish, Haute Curry, and Vettorio Fratini.

"Private brands have been a disappointment throughout the year. We are working hard to benchmark our brands with the right competition in terms of pricing, positioning, and assortment. By end of the second quarter, we believe the results will start changing and in the second half of the year, we should clearly see good growth coming back to the private brand. Once it is back to growth it will improve out topline as well as margins," Govind Shrikhande, managing director and customer care associate of Shoppers Stop told ET.
 
The company also plans to invest heavily on expansion and renovation this year and has earmarked Rs 120 crore (approx $ 18 million) for the same.
 
"On an average, we will invest Rs 120 crore to open five department stores and 12 beauty stores in the beauty format this year. We will also renovate 7 older stores in the current financial year. A part of the proposed investment will also be made to improve and introduce new technology," Shrikhande added.