A Debenhams store in the UK

J by Jasper Conran, Rocha by John Rocha, or Butterfly by Matthew Williamson…

A clutch of “high-profile” labels by British fashion designers will make Calcutta their home when Debenhams opens its first department store here in two years, following in the footsteps of another UK favourite, Marks & Spencer.

“Calcutta is very much on our radar and we are looking at a two to three-year horizon for Debenhams to come to the city,” Sameer Prasad, the chief operating officer of Planet Retail Holdings Pvt Ltd, tells Metro from Delhi.

The lifestyle-retail company, which also holds the Indian master franchises for Marks & Spencer, Guess, Women’s Secret and The Body Shop, was responsible for bringing these brands to Avani Heights, on Chowringhee, near the Exide intersection. The Kishore Biyani-promoted Pantaloon Retail holds 49 per cent equity in Planet Retail.

“We are satisfied with the response and positive about the potential of the Calcutta market and our confidence has been vindicated by the success of our bouquet of brands at Avani Heights,” adds Prasad.

Debenhams is set to open its first Indian store in September at Ambi Mall in Gurgaon, followed by a second outlet at the DLF Courtyard Mall in Saket, Delhi. The company recently announced plans to invest $30-50 million in 10 stores across the country by 2010.

“We will offer an international shopping experience and raise the bar for lifestyle retail in the Indian market, in terms of shopping environment and experience. Each Debenhams store will have unique design features, specially developed by a world-class design development firm based out of the UK,” promises Prasad.

But is price-sensitive Calcutta ready for Debenhams? Abhijit Das, the regional director of international property consultants Jones Lang LaSalle Meghraj, sure thinks so. “It’s just the right time for a format like Debenhams to come to Calcutta. We are convinced the market here is big enough to absorb luxury retail. It’s also a question of supply creating demand, which has been observed in so many products and service lines in the city already,” he reasons.

The UK giant has a portfolio of “over 100 successful designer and own brands” and the Calcutta outlet will house all those — Red Herring, Maine, Thomas Nash, Mantaray, Pineapple and more.

Debenhams, which is established through company-owned stores in the UK and Ireland, also has franchise stores in Bahrain, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Dubai, Iceland, Kuwait, Indonesia, Malaysia, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sharjah and Sweden.