V-mart aims to expand as 'aspirational value' retailer, to open 50 to 60 stores in FY23

By

Isabelle Crossley

Published
Mar 30, 2022

Value fashion and lifestyle retailer V-mart plans to open 50 to 60 additional stores in the 2023 financial year and position itself as an 'aspirational value' retailer for rural shoppers. 

“We see normal economics coming back to the stores which is in terms of the sales per square feet, the cost incurred per square feet and the EBTIDA [earnings before tax, interest, depreciation, and amortisation] per square feet,” V-Mart Retail’s founder and managing director Lalit Agarwal told the Economic Times in an interview. “So we will have our numbers back in the coming year and we will open another 50 to 60 stores next year. That is how we are planning 16-17% square feet addition.”
 
Due to rising raw materials prices, including cotton prices, V-mart had to increase its prices for the first time in the past one and a half years which, along with inflation, is leading its current growth.

The business does expect quantitative growth in the 2023 financial year helped in part by the store openings. V-mart’s long-term plan is to become, the most aspirational value retailer of Bharat, according to Agarwal. 
 
“I think we have got a big plan to penetrate Bharat,” said Agarwal. “We are nearest to the district and the villages so we would now move to the block levels and tehsil and become denser in the bigger cities and bigger towns wherever there is a higher amount of population.We plan to do at least three times of what we are doing in the next five years.”
 
V-mart retails a wide selection of men’s, women’s, and children’s casual, ethnic, and occasion wear as well as accessories and lifestyle goods. The brand retails from its brick-and-mortar stores and dedicated e-commerce store.