Retail major Spencer’s plans to add about 2.75 lakh square feet of trading area and take their number of hypermarkets to 132 this financial year from the current 120 in 35 cities across India, according to media reports. As part of the expansion plan, Spencer’s opened two hypermarkets, spread over 60,000 square feet in Hyderabad recently. Hyderabad now has five Spencer’s hypermarkets – the highest in the country. S.M. Ramanathan, vice-president and business manager (Telangana & AP), Spencer’s Retail, told the media after the inaugural of the two hypermarkets that the company had made its first ever operating profit this May and there was a steady, double-digit store sales growth in the first quarter of this fiscal. Currently Spencer’s hypermarkets in Hyderabad are attracting nearly 4 million footfalls every month. Spencer’s is also evaluating possibilities about tying up with hyper-local startups for digital footprint for the retail major. The retail giant is keeping an eye on the new development of hyper-local delivery startups as they are gaining popularity. Spencers retail sector head Shashwat Goenka indicated that the company was still evaluating whether to launch its own e-commerce arm or tie up with hyper local stratups to overcome the logistics challenges or adopt a mix of both. Pricing also remains to be a challenging task for e-commerce at the time when e-tailers were engaged into deep discounting. Spencer’s profits have been erratic and e-commerce could help the retail major in attaining higher sales.
