Lifestyle likely to post profit after 10 years of ops

NEW DELHI: Lifestyle International, the Indian unit of billionaire Micky Jagtiani’s $3.2 billion Landmark Group, is on course to post its first profit in more than 10 years of operations, a senior official said.

“Lifestyle has been profitable for a while, but our other formats were in investment mode. This year, for the first time, we will achieve profitability at a group level,” said Kabir Lumba, managing director at Lifestyle International.
Apart from its flagship Lifestyle store, the company that started operations in 1999 also runs furniture and home supplies store Home Centre and fashion store Splash.

It is buoyed by rapidly improving consumer sentiment in the country after last year’s economic slowdown that helped India top the latest global consumer confidence index of The Nielsen Company.

Lifestyle posted a turnover of Rs 1,070 crore last fiscal and, according to Mr Lumba, it will increase 60% this year. “Our customers have started spending well again, and all our categories are posting strong double digit growth,” he said.

Lifestyle plans to open six more stores this fiscal, including three large-format stores in the National Capital Region this year. It competes directly with K Raheja Group’s Shoppers Stop.

Mr Lumba said womenswear was the first category to pick up post the slowdown and continues to post the highest growth. The company has a significant private labels business, accounting for almost a quarter of revenues. Mr Lumba said the company is able to leverage the group’s multinational presence in identifying emerging trends and sourcing merchandise.