Despite the emergence of the Omicron threat in recent days, several retailers and brands said they are not altering plans and for now, are going ahead with their planned expansion.

This is not only being fuelled by established brands but also some of the new-age D2C brands that want to ensure their products are available across channels.

For instance, male grooming brand, The Man Company, plans to add 17 stores by the end of this month alone, and overall 50 stores by March-end. On Saturday, Lulu Group’s retail arm, Tablez, opened its first toy retail store in Bengaluru, and has plans to open 10 stores under the brand in malls located in Mumbai, Delhi, Pune, and Chennai in the first phase.

The company is lining up more launches in 2022 additional stores in the launch queue before the end of the second quarter of 2022.

Lalit Agarwal, Managing Director, V-Mart Retail, said, “We are targetting addition of about four stores per month ... and we will be focusing on achieving that as we try to grow by about 15 per cent on our base.”

In July, the company acquired 74 stores of “Unlimited” from Arvind Lifestyle Brands strengthening its presence in southern India.

A senior executive with a retail company added, “Brands and retailers are largely going ahead with the stores that were in the pipeline. In terms of new sign-ups, there may be some caution but they are not altering plans for the stores that are slated to open in the coming week.”

Premium brands have witnessed strong recovery and have not yet seen any impact due to Omicron. Rajesh Jain, MD & CEO, Lacoste India, said, “By the end of this fiscal year, we plan to add five new points of sales. We have already opened two stores and three more will be added by the end of this fiscal. We have plans of adding five to six more next year.”

Brands are also sharply focusing on tapping on the potential in the tier-2 and tier-3 cities.

Anupam Bansal, Director, Liberty Shoes said, “We have added about 8 to 10 stores in the past 3 to 4 months. We are looking to add stores in tier 2 and 3 towns as there is strong growth potential here.”

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