Convenience store and hypermarket operator Spencer’s Retail has appointed consultancy firm Boston Consulting Group (BCG) to spruce up its organisation structure as also help it find a foreign partner, The Economic Times reported, citing sources.
Spencer's is looking to either rope in a foreign partner or go for an initial public offering (IPO).
BCG, an international strategy and general management consulting firm, is helping the Kolkata-based retailer's organisational structure in areas such as merchandising, new store opening, customer analytics and in-store space optimisation.
Spencer’s Retail, owned by Kolkata-based R P Sanjiv Goenka Group’s public listed firm CESC Ltd, currently operates 120 stores across the country. The group has businesses ranging from power generation to software training. In the next four years, Spencer's plans to add 80 new stores.
The supermarket chain offers a large range of household products, but gets 75 per cent of its revenue from food.
The retailer has doubled its revenues earned per square foot of retail space in last three years to Rs 1,350 a month. During 2012-13, it registered same store sales growth of over 16 per cent, with an average revenue per square feet of Rs 1,226 per month as against Rs 1,060 in the previous year. Its operating losses came down from Rs 140 crore in 2011-12 to Rs 78 crore in 2012-13. It had net loss of Rs 209 crore on revenue of Rs 1,347 crore last financial year.
The proposed expansion will help it augment and strengthen its presence in the country, which is poised to see global players come in after the Indian government relaxed FDI norms in multi-brand retail.
UK retail major Tesco is in the process of investing $110 million to foray in Indian retail market in partnership with Tata Group's Trent which runs Star Bazaar, a competitor for Spencer’s hypermarket chain.
