Spencer’s Retail, a part of the RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group (RPSG), has forayed into the value segment to cater to the needs of price-conscious customers particularly in Tier-II, Tier-III and Tier-IV towns and cities with the launch of its new hyper market chain called Spencer’s Value Market. The company currently operates across two formats including the premium gourmet segment through Nature’s Basket and the regular aspirational segment through Spencer’s.
According to Shashwat Goenka, Sector Head- Retail & FMCG, RPSG, there has been significant surge in the value class of consumers over the last four-to-five years, particularly post Covid. While the company will continue to expand its existing formats in the 35-odd cities that it is present in, it will set up Spencer’s Value Market stores for expansion beyond those 35 cities, particularly in Tier-III and Tier-IV towns.
In the first phase, the existing Spencer’s outlets at six locations including Karimnagar, Warangal, Kurnool, Guntur, Bhimavaram and Vijayanagaram will be converted into Spencer’s Value Market outlets. It plans to have a total of 10 Value Market outlets in the next one-to-two months.
During FY24, it plans to open a total of 14-18 stores, of which nearly 50 per cent would be Spencer’s and the remaining 50 per cent would be Value Market. Spencer’s currently operates 152 stores while Nature’s Basket has around 35 stores.
“We have been so far catering to the premium gourmet and the aspirational segment and were not operating in the value conscious segment. So we are launching a category to capture this segment,” Goenka said in a select press briefing virtually on Monday.
Range of products
Spencer’s Value Market will have the entire range of products across food, grocery, personal care, apparel and general merchandise, among others. All products would be available at a six per cent discount on a daily basis with a clear aim to target the price-conscious customers.
The Value Market stores would be smaller in size around 8,000-12,000 sq.ft as compared to a Spencer’s where the average store size ranges between 14,000 and 16,000 sq.ft and will be located in the thick of catchment areas.
“The Value Market being a new category will be a high growth segment for us but we expect to grow across all three formats over the next couple of years. We expect that in the next 12-18 months the Value Market format should reach stabilized income level and add to the bottomline of the company,” he said.