The company that brought contemporary organised retail to town through the Pantaloons Gariahat store in 1997 is poised to invest Rs 350 crore in new outlets across the city by mid-2008.

Kishore Biyani’s Future Group is looking to add another 10 Big Bazaars and three Pantaloons stores in Calcutta “by the middle of next year”. It also hopes to have the “seamless mall”, Calcutta Central on Ballygunge Circular Road, and Home Town, its home solutions format, in Rajarhat up and running by 2008-end.

“Calcutta has always been at the heart of our expansion plans and we are delighted to bring our emerging formats to the city, while adding to our existing businesses,” says Biyani, managing director of Pantaloon Retail (India) Ltd, who expects Rs 1,000-crore business from Calcutta in 2007-08 — up from Rs 350 crore in 2006-07. The 22 Camac Street and Kankurgachhi Pantaloons outlets each does Rs 40-45 lakh worth of business every weekend and are among the top-grossing stores in the country.

The 10 new Big Bazaars will occupy 500,000 sq ft, while the three new Pantaloons stores — in South City Mall, City Centre II and Riverside Mall in Howrah — will add up to 175,000 sq ft. Calcutta Central, being designed by the New York-based Rockwell Group, will take up another 350,000 sq ft at the intersection of Ballygunge Circular Road and AJC Bose Road.

“Home Town, at the Block-By-Block mall in New Town Rajarhat, will be spread across 275,000 sq ft and will be the largest in the chain. The other formats of our home solutions business, E-Zone and Collection-I, will chip in with another 50,000 sq ft,” says Sandeep Marwaha, head-operations, east, Pantaloon Retail, a division of Future Group.

The company is also bringing its Brand Factory to Calcutta, offering over 120 brands at factory-outlet prices under one roof. Two standalone Food Bazaars, in Kumartuli and Howrah, will account for 40,000 sq ft. KB’s Wholesale Markets, an “essentially B2B” chain, will be launched, too.

Following the Mumbai model, Pantaloon Retail is planning two self-managed malls on Diamond Harbour Road in Behala and in Madhyamgram, to showcase its own formats and other brands. Mackinnon & Mackenzie House, on 16 Strand Road, is also being redeveloped by the company as a retail destination, with Benoy of the UK doing the design.

“We want Calcutta to consume more because consumption is tantamount to development and economic growth,” says Biyani. To facilitate consumption, Future Group will introduce its Future Money concept in many retail outlets, offering pre-approved loans on the spot.