Sky?s the limit

Mumbai, June 9: Even as the developers hunker down to the business of building spanking new airports in Mumbai and Delhi, retailers are sensing a big business opportunity and beginning to carve out new alliances.

Shoppers? Stop, the K. Raheja promoted retail chain, has entered into a joint venture agreement with the Nuance Group to tap the local airport retail market.

The two companies plan to form a joint venture where both will have equal stakes. They plan to offer a comprehensive range of services from operating master concessions to distribution of international brands, Shoppers? Stop has informed the Bombay Stock Exchange.

The objective of the joint venture is to offer a wide range of services for the Indian airport retail both on the duty free side and on the domestic side as approved by the regulations.

The MoU was signed by representatives of the two companies in Hyderabad today.

Unlike airports around the world, Indian airports are crummy and have virtually no shopping arcades, lounges and coffee shops for travellers except for poorly stocked ITDC duty-free outlets. The revamp of the Mumbai and Delhi airports could change all that.

B.S. Nagesh, MD, Shoppers? Stop, told The Telegraph, ?It will not be fair on my part to comment on behalf of both the companies. All I can say is that both the companies have signed an MoU today in Hyderabad and this is the first time that we have tied up with an international retail chain.?

Zurich airport-headquartered Nuance Group runs travel retail operations across five continents. In Asia, the group is present in the airports of Hong Kong, Singapore, and New Zealand. This will also be the group?s maiden entry into the Indian market.

Carlo Bernasconi, executive vice-president (business development & strategic marketing), Nuance Group, said in a statement, ?The signing of this MoU with Shoppers? Stop Ltd is a first milestone for Nuance Group?s entry into the dynamic growth market ? India. We are convinced that together we will be able to create a truly unique offer perfectly tailored to the needs of the customers at Indian airports.?

Shoppers? Stop with a turnover of Rs 675 crore last fiscal, owns around 9.8 lakh sq ft of retail space, spanning department stores, hyper malls and speciality stores. Stop?s departmental stores chain includes 20 Shoppers? Stop outlets that it aims to increase to 40 in the next 30 months.

It also aims to raise the number of its hyper mall format, HyperCity, from one outlet now in Mumbai to four in the next few months.

The company is looking to venture into food court operations in some of its large format stores.

These will see the launch of a few more food and beverage brands serving a variety of cuisines.

The services would range from the operation of master concessions, duty free, and food & beverage concessions to the franchise concepts developed by Nuance. It would also distribute international brands of wine and liquor to hotels and other wholesalers as may be permitted by foreign direct investment regulations.