My Dollar to ramp up retail presence

Cashing in on the Indian consumer's fancy for imported stuff, US retailer My Dollar Store is looking at ramping up its presence in India.

Pankaj Oza, manager -- marketing, My Dollar Store, said the company planned to set up at least 70 more stores in addition to the existing 26 by August 2006.

"This time we are looking at the smaller cities like Surat and Baroda," he said.  Sankalp Retail Value Stores is the master franchisee for the brand in India.

Apart from the larger format stores of about 1,500 square feet, the company is also setting up smaller (about 700 square feet) Express stores in IT Parks which would cater to people who don't have the time to go to malls/high streets.

The company has set up few of the Express outlets at HPCL petrol pumps as well, although the two haven't entered into any sort of arrangement for future outlets.

Oza said the newer outlets would be a mix of company-owned and franchisee stores. The stores have a mix of 20 product categories like home, food, toys etc and Oza said all products have been imported, mainly from the US and China.

Oza is not too worried about the competition from local retailers who also stock imported products as he believes that they have an edge in terms of pricing.

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