4 days ago
WHSmith India sets sights on 5x expansion by 2028 with Rs 100 cr bet on travel retail boom
WHSmith India
, the Indian counterpart of the British
travel retail
company, is eyeing a 5x growth over the next 3 years. Currently, the brand runs 40 stores in India across stations, airports, and university campuses, and is planning to take the store count to 200 by 2028, Shantanu Chakravartty, CEO and director of WHSmith India, told ETRetail.
The travel retail brand, which closed the last fiscal with Rs 200 crore revenue along with 8 per cent EBITDA profitability and is aiming to grow its topline to Rs 500 crore and 12-13 per cent EBITDA profitability in the next three years.
"We are quite bullish on the travel retail market as international passenger traffic is expected to grow 21 per cent year-on-year, and domestic passenger traffic is expected to grow 14 per cent year-on-year, and it has a direct impact on our business," he asserted.
The brand, which is planning to invest Rs 100 crore to aid its
expansion plans
, will now be looking at opening stores at railway stations and highways, along with expanding its base at the airports.
Currently, the brand operates in 3 main categories - food, non-food, and books.
"Food contributes to 60 per cent of our revenue, and the remaining 40 per cent is equally divided between non-food and books. However, going ahead, we plan to focus on the books category a little more. There's a lot of potential to grow in this category. We are also exploring the idea of opening exclusive bookstores," he stated.
Apart from this, it operates 2 other store formats - Zoodle and Memories of India, with one operating store of each at Hyderabad and Kochi airport, respectively.
"Zoodle offers toys, and Memories of India offers souvenirs and gifts. We plan to open 10-12 stores of each going ahead," he said.
Shantanu Chakravartty has recently been appointed as the chief executive officer and director of WHSmith India. He has been associated with the brand for the past seven years.
Globally, WHSmith operates more than 1,700 stores across 30 countries.
