Godrej eyes home appliances, furniture

KOLKATA: The Godrej Group will shortly launch speciality boutique retail stores in four product categories — home appliances, home furniture, office furniture and non-apparel lifestyle products. The group’s flagship company, Godrej & Boyce Manufacturing Co, is finalising rollout plans which will crystallise in 2007-08.

The Godrej group intends to set up 20-odd speciality stores by calender 2010 with a major thrust on the top eight markets — Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Pune. While Godrej & Boyce operates a chain of 47 multi-product stores branded Godrej Lifespace, the group is working on a separate brand identity for speciality stores.

Godrej & Boyce’s retail division business head and vice president Shyam Motwani told ET: “We will launch six of these boutique stores in 2007-08. Typically, each speciality store will be spread over 1,000-1,500 square feet (sq ft) in size. They will be present on both high-street and malls.” With the exception of the lifestyle speciality stores, all other formats will sell only Godrej branded products.