Date:22/08/2007 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2007/08/22/stories/2007082251770500.htm

Back GHCL setting up home textiles retail chain

— Kamal Narang

Building presence: Mr Sanjay Dalmia, Chairman, GHCL, with Mr Damien Morris, COO, Rosebys, at a press conference in the Capital on Tuesday.

Our Bureau

New Delhi, Aug. 21 GHCL Ltd today announced its plans to launch a retail chain of home textiles stores and also have a presence in exclusive and multi-brand outlets across the country, spreading over urban, semi-urban and rural markets.

The company Chairman, Mr Sanjay Dalmia, said: “We would be opting for organic cotton for the textiles. From next year onwards we intend to tie up with farmers who would provide us with cotton and the processing too would be done very carefully.”

“We want to be present in every nook and corner of the country and investment would not be a limiting factor,” he said.

The company plans to set up its first store in the National Capital Region and eventually take the franchise route to expand its customer reach.

The company has around 300 outlets in the UK market through Rosebys, which it had acquired two years ago.“We are in the process of building a powerful brand and are poised to grow and build a dominant presence in the country’s home textile industry. Our plan is to further develop a vertically integrated home textile capability encompassing all aspects of product delivery from fibre to fashion,” Mr Dalmia said.

To begin with the retail stores would be selling items such as curtains, bed-sheets, pillows and other items of domestic use.

The company is also planning to enter the furniture and home decorating product segment and is expecting around 15 to 20 per cent of its turnover from it.