Pinnacle

The highest rentals do not automatically guarantee you the highest footfalls that lead to subsequent sale. Looking at the Kolkata retail biz will give you an idea that the highest sales sometimes come from the most unexpected locales. The question is how long will these sale boom last for retailers ? With such a boom in place, developers are going all out to spread huge malls n retail spaces. Will such malls still rake in the moolah for the retailers ?

your take on it ......



THERE IS STILL ENOUGH ROOM FOR MORE
Sumit Moitra, Kolkota, November 06, 2006
The Financial Express

Do you know where the country’s highest selling furniture store is located? Or the shop selling the most Raymonds’ textiles? Or Sony’s range of electronic products?

They are all in Kolkata: the Camac Street outlet of Style Spa is the highest selling furniture shop in the country with a monthly revenue of Rs 40-50 lakh. Raymonds’ outlet at Poddar Court ranks first while one of the authorised showrooms of in Kolkata sells the largest number of the Japanese multinational’s range of electronic products in the country. The retail sector in Kolkata is growing and the industry believes there is still room for more. The worry of overcapacity is surely there but it is not yet reached a level where it turns scary.

"Of course there would be a lot of burnouts. The dynamics of the retail market is such that malls that have gained mass popularity today and enjoy a footfall of 5,000 to 7,000 a day may have to bow out of the competition at the end of the day. That’s because five years from now the market dynamics will shift to accommodate a new set of parameters guided by the changing times," says Sushil Mohta, director, South City Projects Kolkata Ltd.

Over the past three years, around 15.75 lakh sq ft of retail space was added in Kolkata; the prominent projects being City Centre (4 lakh sq ft), Forum Mall (2 lakh sq ft) and the Metropolis (1.41 lakh sq ft). In the next one year, close to 44 lakh sq ft is set to be added. The biggest contributor would be South City Mall with its 9.5 lakh sq ft, the most ambitious realty project in Kolkata so far. The Axis, being being built by the Bengal Peerless group (5 lakh sq ft), comes second.