Shoppers Stop to hire 1,000 more

Lifestyle retailer Shoppers Stop plans to up its headcount by nearly 1,000 in the next six months in line with the roll-outs of its new stores in five cities across India.

The K Raheja group company will open 4-5 Shoppers Stop stores and three Hypercity's post-October, Shoppers Stop's vice chairman (non-executive director), B S Nagesh, said.

"We are opening 4-5 Shoppers' (Stop)... that would require about 450-500 people. We have also planned three Hypercity stores and that again would need 500 people," Nagesh told reporters on the sidelines of a conference in Mumbai on Tuesday.

"So, we are adding 1,000 people on a base of 3,000, about 30-35 per cent increase in hiring," he said.

The company also plans to open around 5-10 stores of its Crossword bookshop, he added.

"We will be spending about Rs 7-8-crore per store of Shoppers Stop and Hypercity," Nagesh said, but did not elaborate on the nature of funding.

The BSE-listed company currently operates 27-stores of Shoppers' Stop and four Hypercity's across India.

The company expects to see positive margins in the April-June 2010 quarter, Nagesh said, adding that the first quarter of this fiscal saw flat to negative growth.

The top management of the retail chain also recently took a 15 per cent pay cut as part of a restructuring and role correction exercise.

The Raheja Group, had, earlier this year, downed the shutters of its bookstore format, Crossword, in Chennai and New Delhi and Mumbai airports.

The company had also shut its airport retail venture Stop & Go in Mumbai.

Besides, in January, it had informed the bourses of the winding up of Argos and Brio, a food and beverage format.