Pantaloon for more tie-ups - Sadashiv Nayak

"We are looking at tie ups but everything is in the pipeline. We already have tie-up shoe wears like with Galaxy, Liberty, Jenie & Johnnie and Lee Cooper," Sadashiv Nayak, head operations, West Zone, Pantaloon Retail India told Business Standard.

He was in the city for the launch of Fashion Station, a value retail format store targeting youths. The store is the fourth in the country.

Pantaloon will also boost up its food retailing with a total mix of food retailing.

Food business currently contributes about 10-15 per cent of the business in malls which is as high as 40 per cent overseas.

It already has Light Kitchen and an Indian food retail in its stores to provide snacks and food to customers, Anand Aduka, regional manager operations said.

Spread over 22,000 square feet, Pantaloon has invested around rupees four crore in Fashion Station which is excluding the cost of the building and expects sales about Rs 16-20 in the first year.

The retail major has identified 15 cities in the state and plans to open 20 such stores including four more in Ahmedabad, two each in Baroda, Rajkot and Surat. In all it will set up over 50 such station in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkota, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune and Ahmedabad in the 4-5 years.

The Rajkot stores are expected by June while those in Baroda and Surat would be ready by August and September.

Fashion Station will house trendy fashion apparel at a affordable price and will target fashion conscious youths. The disposable income of the youth in the city is around Rs 2,500 and the apparel in the stores have taken into account the amount, Nayak added.