Retail chain Odyssey plans expansion

Chennai-based retail chain Odyssey, which sells products such as books, toys and multimedia, has chalked out a Rs 125 crore nation-wide expansion plan.

This was unveiled at the opening of the firm’s first store in Bangalore today.

“Odyssey is a well-known brand in south India. We intend to have a pan-India presence this year by increasing the number of stores,” said Odyssey India Managing Director T S Ashwin.

Odyssey has 14 stores in six cities — Chennai, Hyderabad, Salem, Coimbatore, Trichy and Varanasi — occupying a retail space of 75,000 square feet.

By the end of the current financial year, the company plans to increase the number of stores to 20, with more stores coming up in Noida (Uttar Pradesh) and Kozhikode (Kerala).

Ashwin said the firm was targeting a total retail space of 5.5 lakh square feet by 2008-09. “We are moving into new cities, IT parks and malls. Fifteen stores will be commissioned in the next financial year. In 2008-09, another five stores will be opened,” he added.

The new stores will come up in Bangalore (6 ), Mumbai (3 ), Pune (3 ), Ahmedabad, Gurgaon, Nagpur, Thane, Hyderabad, Kochi, Chandigarh, Amritsar, Ludhiana, Mohali, Rajkot, Surat, Mangalore, Thiruvananthapuram, Visakhapatnam and Mysore (1 each).

It will also expand in existing markets like Chennai, Hyderabad and Coimbatore.

According to company executives, demand for specialised products sold through Odyssey is propelling the growth of the firm. Apart from books and toys, cards, music, stationery, educational CD-ROMS, playstations and gifting are also available at Odyssey stores.

Books contribute around 30-35 per cent of the firm’s total turnover. The stores stock a wide range of books on subjects ranging from popular fiction, non-fiction, computing, self-help, health, management, travel and coffee table books.

While the average number of titles in a Odyssey store is 30,000, some of the large format stores have up to 80,000 titles.

Odyssey, which started off in 1995 as a book store in Chennai, was acquired by Deccan Chronicle Holdings in September 2005 for Rs 61.2 crore. The retail chain’s revenue is expected to touch Rs 110 crore this financial year.

Source: Business STandard