Having carved out its niche as the “country’s third-largest footwear retailer”, Khadim’s has taken the plunge into lifestyle retail. The city-based Khadim India Ltd on Tuesday announced the launch of a chain of departmental stores called Egaro.

“Our success in shoes and the strong brand recall of Khadim’s has given us confidence to grow the brand further. We sensed a need for detailing in retail and Egaro is born out of that aspiration,” Siddhartha Roy Burman, managing director, told Metro.

From clothes to footwear, cosmetics to gold ornaments and fashion jewellery, home furnishings to groceries — Egaro promises to offer shopping solutions across an eclectic product mix under one roof, with privately-owned fashion apparel labels taking up 50 per cent of rack space.

The first two outlets will open by May-end on Ashutosh Mukherjee Road, in Bhowanipore (picture above), and at Howrah Maidan.

The Bhowanipore Egaro has shop space of 28,000 sq ft spread across three levels. The Howrah stop will open with 20,000 sq ft and add another 9,000 sq ft in the second phase.

“We will operate in the value fashion segment, catering to the upper middle and middle-class shoppers,” said the managing director, thanking father Satya Prasad Roy Burman, chairman of the company, for the “inspiration”, and the “liberty” to experiment.

The third outlet of Egaro is expected to open in Asansol by this year-end, followed by outlets in Burdwan and Sodepur. Chief financial officer Ishani Ray said the company plans to pump in Rs 50 crore for the departmental store business, and a sum total of Rs 120 crore towards various projects in the next two years. Four to five Egaros will be added to the chain every year on an average.

Khadim India hopes to touch a turnover of Rs 45 crore in the current financial year, going up to Rs 180 crore in three years. “We are confident of reaching Rs 500 crore in the next three years and become the number one footwear retailer in the country in five years,” declared the managing director.

The in-house brands being launched in Egaro outlets are Adrianna (ladies’ western wear), Manjira (ladies’ ethnic wear), e’Vinson (men’s formal) and Bonito (kidswear). “These lifestyle brands will be 30 to 40 per cent cheaper than the nearest competition, a USP of Egaro,” said Abhishek Kumar, vice-president, LFR (large-format retail) division of Khadim India.

Egaro, named after a Spanish village, pledges a “friendly and comfortable” ambience, also stocking high-profile brands like Levi’s (for women), Pepe, Arrow and Allen Solly. The management is keen to use the learning curve from its maiden large-format venture, a superstore called Khadim’s Khazana in Kanchrapara, targeted at low to mid-income segments.

“We have a huge advantage of being able to draw from our established distribution network and the backend manpower resources,” felt Ray.