Shutters down at Spencer’s in Ranchi. Pix: Manik Bose

Ranchi, July 28: Not fresh vegetables and happy discounts, but downed shutters are welcoming shoppers at Spencer’s.

The retail chain from the RPG stable has made a quiet exit from the capital, winding up all its three outlets — one each at Bariatu, Ashok Nagar and Circular Road — within a span of 2-3 days.

A vegetable collection centre in Namkum has also been closed. Some time ago, Spencer’s had shut down its outlet in Dhanbad, too. Two more outlets of the retail giant — at Sakchi and Bistupur in Jamshedpur — are, however, still doing business.

A official of the retail major said Spencer’s had decided to exit Jharkhand as of now, as the company found the business in the state “not viable”.

In fact, the company is restructuring its business across the country, closing down loss-making stores. It recently exited from Gujarat and Jharkhand seemed to be second on the list.

Spencer’s, a part of RPG Enterprises, posted a Rs 289-crore loss last fiscal. Last week, vice-chairman Sanjiv Goenka had also said that the company could take about 12 months to turn profitable again. It is currently focusing on large format stores and closing down smaller ones.

Spencer’s had opened stores in Ranchi in the beginning of 2008. Jamshedpur boasted one outlet the year before while the second was opened simultaneously with those in Ranchi.

Though Spencer’s officials in Ranchi were not forthcoming when asked why the outlets were being shut down, a senior executive of a rival retail player claimed that the company’s outlets in the capital were running into severe losses. “They could neither handle the supply chain efficiently nor maintain the quality of goods,” he said.

The outlets dealt with an entire gamut of consumer products. They also sold fish and chicken — the two items not on the list of rival Reliance Fresh, which has nine stores in the capital.

“I do not know why Spencer’s is shutting shop. As far as business in concerned, we are doing fine,” said Prabhat Sinha, the head of Reliance Retail in Jharkhand.

The RPG group’s decision has, meanwhile, disappointed capital residents. “It was a one-stop shopping destination for household items.

Now, I will have to visit several shops, which takes a toll on both your time and energy,” said Upendra Kumar Sahay, a resident of Ashok Nagar. He, however, admitted that he had stopped buying vegetables from the outlet for sometime, as “they could not maintain quality”.

Spencer’s is one of India’s largest and fastest growing multi-format retail chain with 275 stores, including 36 hyper stores across 66 cities.