Kolkata, May 27 (IANS) Footwear manufacturer and retailer Bata India is planning to spend Rs.150-200 crore over the next three years to open new large format stores and renovate existing ones, a top company official said Thursday.
‘We would spend Rs.150-200 crore in the coming three years for new stores and to renovate stores and for plant and equipments,’ P.M. Sinha, company chairman, told reporters on the sidelines of the annual general meeting here .
This fiscal, the company plans to open around 70 large format stores, he said, adding that it would be focusing on large formats only in the future.
‘We will be closing down 24 cash-drained stores this year,’ Sinha said.
The company at present has over 1,250 retail stores.
Last year Bata renovated 40 stores and closed down 73, which were small in format.
The company has restructured terms and conditions for the development of its integrated township project at Batanagar in West Bengal. It would receive an aggregate upfront amount of Rs.100 crore for future transfer of shares in the joint-venture company and variation of the development rights.
Sinha said Bata India had got a large portion of the upfront amount.
In addition, the company will also receive 640,000 square feet of constructed space free of cost in the project over a period of time.
In 2005, Bata set up a joint venture company with Calcutta Metropolitan Group Ltd (CMGL) on a 50:50 shareholding basis to build the integrated township.
Regarding supplying specially-designed shoes to the defence sector, Sinha said: ‘We have started supplying shoes to the defence forces and we are doing well.’
He declined to share any details.
