TOY RETAIL GIANT WOOLWORTH ENTERS KOLKATA

Kolkata, June 7 The tie-up between Indian retailing major Spencer and the Woolworth PLC of UK has made the prospects of toy industry quite bright in the state. Finally, UK’s retail major Woolworth has succeeded in crossing the threshold and entered the state. The first Woolworth store was opened at the South City Mall on Saturday.
Inaugurating the store at the Spencer, Sanjeev Goenka, Vice Chairman RPG Enterprises said: “Indian toy market is expected to have a growth of 50- 60 per cent within the next couple of years. Since, there are few brands which maintain an actual balance between good selection of toys and their prices, we are hoping to capture the market soon.” In the next 18 months RPG enterprise is going to invest approximately 12000 cr in this business and so far the group has invested 1000 cr.

“People are willing to pay a premium amount of money to buy a toy of superior quality and we are witnessing the benefit across the toy industry in India,” added Goenka.

Apart from toys, Woolworth has a wide variety of products, including food items, electrical items and mobiles, baby shop and clothing, garden and home equipment. Sunil Mittal’s plan to open the cash and carry business in collaboration with US retail major Wal-Mart was not encouraged by the state, while Germany’s Metro Cash & Carry has already been allowed to set up the same business here. And now, in Spencer’s outlet, Woolworth has fixed a place for them. “All of Spencer’s 400 outlets, operating in India, are going to have Chad Valley stores. Initially, Chad Valley is opening with the ‘shop in shop’ idea and that’s why we have collaborated with retail major Spencer. In next 12-18 months, we are planning to set up our stand alone outlets allover India,” said Simon Brown, head of international trade, Woolworth.