Oxford Bookstores, Odyssey will open their stores at Coimbatore.

There is good news for booklovers.

Oxford Bookstores Private Limited, run by the Apeejay Group, is planning a pan-India presence over the next 5-10 years that include presence in tier-I, tier-II cities and towns as well. The new stores would be run on franchisee models and would be a mix of small and large format stores. Large format stores would be close to 6,000 sq ft, with a tea and snacks bar, while the smaller stores would be of 400 sq ft, minus the food corner. "We plan to open 6 more Oxford Bookstores in India by March 2007, besides the existing 10," informed Rajiv Chowdhry, chief executive officer, Apeejay Oxford Bookstore.

The first set of stores would come up at Shillong, Guwahati, Mysore, Coimbatore, among others. The company also plans to take Oxford Junior bookstore to other regions. "Although fiction dominates sale, 20 per cent of our sales see demand for children's books. So we set up a separate store for people upto 18 years of age and would take this format to all other cities and towns we expand to," informed Chowdhry. The company is also trying to build its junior brand into a leisure activity zone. "We arrange special activities for children at the store that include theatre play, debate, colouring, clay modelling, etc., held for 1 to 3 hours. Oxford Junior also has a kids' coordinator who reads stories to children," Chawdhry said.

"Initially we started off with pitching to our existing customer base to use Oxford Junior as an entertainment-cum-educational ground for their children. We have also met principals of at least 16 schools so far because we want them to treat Oxford Junior like a leisure activity ground," Chowdhry said. So far, Oxford Junior had at least 4 schools participating in these activities, either on weekends or on weekdays.

The junior store has also tied-up with schools such as Heritage, South Point, DPS, Loreto, among others, to supply books to their libraries. The purpose is to encourage children to read books more, despite diversions from television and other media. The bookstore also stocks educational toys, supplied by a few toy companies in US and UK, as well as gaming CD Roms. Commenting on the reading trends in India , Chowdhry said that people between 16 to 40 years of age are more into reading self-help and motivational books. They also read a lot of travel journals and meditation and yoga guides.

Higher stress level at college or during the initial years of one's career, are reasons driving sale of such books, reasoned Chowdhry. Even at the Book Fair that is held in Kolkata in the beginning of every year, the Oxford book stall sees analogous sales of such 'new-age' books. "On an average, we register sales worth Rs 60,000 every day at the Book Fair, after the 10 per cent discount. However, on Park Street, we register sales worth 3 times more round the year," claimed Chowdhry.
Source:Business Standard

Odyssey rolls out Rs 125 cr expansion

Chennai-based retail chain Odyssey, which sells products such as books, toys and multimedia, has chalked out a Rs 125 crore nation-wide expansion plan. This was unveiled at the opening of the firm’s first store in Bangalore today. “Odyssey is a well-known brand in south India. We intend to have a pan-India presence this year by increasing the number of stores,” said Odyssey India Managing Director T S Ashwin.

Odyssey has 14 stores in six cities — Chennai, Hyderabad, Salem, Coimbatore, Trichy and Varanasi — occupying a retail space of 75,000 square feet. By the end of the current financial year, the company plans to increase the number of stores to 20, with more stores coming up in Noida (Uttar Pradesh) and Kozhikode (Kerala). Ashwin said the firm was targeting a total retail space of 5.5 lakh square feet by 2008-09. “We are moving into new cities, IT parks and malls. Fifteen stores will be commissioned in the next financial year. In 2008-09, another five stores will be opened,” he added. The new stores will come up in Bangalore (6 ), Mumbai (3 ), Pune (3 ), Ahmedabad, Gurgaon, Nagpur, Thane, Hyderabad, Kochi, Chandigarh, Amritsar, Ludhiana, Mohali, Rajkot, Surat, Mangalore, Thiruvananthapuram, Visakhapatnam and Mysore (1 each).

It will also expand in existing markets like Chennai, Hyderabad and Coimbatore. According to company executives, demand for specialised products sold through Odyssey is propelling the growth of the firm. Apart from books and toys, cards, music, stationery, educational CD-ROMS, playstations and gifting are also available at Odyssey stores. Books contribute around 30-35 per cent of the firm’s total turnover. The stores stock a wide range of books on subjects ranging from popular fiction, non-fiction, computing, self-help, health, management, travel and coffee table books.

While the average number of titles in a Odyssey store is 30,000, some of the large format stores have up to 80,000 titles. Odyssey, which started off in 1995 as a book store in Chennai, was acquired by Deccan Chronicle Holdings in September 2005 for Rs 61.2 crore. The retail chain’s revenue is expected to touch Rs 110 crore this financial year.
Source:Business Standard

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