News: Southern brand embarks on a new Odyssey

(DNA 11/09/2006) Mumbai - After being in the books, music and toys retailing segment for over a decade, Chennai-based retailer Odyssey is reaching out to new markets.

The company, which currently has presence in six southern cities — Chennai, Hyderabad, Salem, Coimbatore, Trichy with 13 Odyssey stores — plans to add another 17 cities to its existing network by 2008. The company has earmarked capital expenditure of Rs 95 crore in the coming years.

T S Ashwin, managing director of Odyssey, said: “Capital expenditure of Rs 77 crore will be required for expanding into new cities and states. Another Rs 20 crore will be used for upgrading and renovating the existing stores besides setting up of IT infrastructure to connect these stores and out e-commerce venture.”

Having embarked on a massive expansion plan, the company soon expects to hit the capital markets raise money for its expansion as well as other activities in the pipeline.
“We have filed the Draft Red Herring Prospectus already and are awaiting the Securities and Exchange Baord of India’s approval. The expansion will not be totally funded through the money raised from the IPO, we will use borrowed funds besides approaching financial institutions to fund the expansion,” said Ashwin.

The idea is to be pan India retailer. Odyssey plans to enter Bangalore, Kochi , Pune, Vishakapatnam, Mumbai, New Delhi and the National Capital Region, Chandigarh, Amritsar, Ludhiana, Mohali, Rajkot, Surat, Mangalore and Thiruvananthapuram.

Its existing network in Chennai, Hyderabad and Coimbatore will be spruced up, too. “This expansion will see us adding another 4 lakh sq ft of retail space in the next 2-3 years. Majority of these new stores will located in the shopping mall environment and will be operational by 2008 end,” said Ashwin. The company has approximately 60,000 sq ft of retail space in the network including stand-alone, in hotels and shopping malls.

The company is also in the process of setting up regional warehouses. “Each state will have a regional warehouse spread across 4,000 sq ft with a just-in-time stocking approach. In all we will have nothing less than six regional warehouses by 2008,” said Ashwin.