Baazar Style Retail Ltd operates stores under the brand name ‘Style Baazar’ with an average size of 9,000 square feet and is present in the value segment in East India with over 135 outlets across 7 states including West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Assam, Tripura, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh. Baazar Style retails multi-brand fashion and lifestyle goods. The business was jointly incorporated in June 2013 by Shreyans Surana, Rohit Kedia, Bhagwan Prasad, Pradeep Kumar Agarwal, and Rajendra Kumar Gupta.
Baazar Style’s retail stores offer clothing, footwear, luggage, accessories, fragrances, sunglasses, cosmetics, and toys. Apart from Style Baazar the retailer also operates a lifestyle brand under the name Express Baazar.
Kolkata-based Style Baazar claims of providing best in-store experience to the customers in the East and Northeast regions. The retailer objects to change the way shopping in East and Northeast is experienced. According to the retailer, even today, many of the small towns in the Eastern region run on stock-and-sell in a rack model. Having a well-known name across the Eastern region of the country, Shreyans Surana, Director, Baazar Style Retail speaks to eastindiaretail.com on the future plans.
He said that they want to focus only on the Eastern region of the country as they feel this market is still unexplored. The shop formats come with the concept of a mall where a family can enjoy shopping together. They mainly sell garments and non-apparel items such as appliances, bed-sheets, towels, cosmetics and more. They are located majorly on high-streets.
They emphasis on ambiance because even today, for many of the tier-2 and tier-3 cities, the highest expectancy is a shop with air-conditioning. Rather than just a cash transaction, they aim at creating a unforgettable shopping experience in the minds of customers. They spend on merchandising, providing open space to walk around the store, mannequins and lighting and also have a common theme for stores across the cities.
Recently Style Baazar has launched two stores in West Bengal at Uluberia and Bagnan, respectively in Howrah district. The fashion retailer has also newly opened stores at Illambazar (West Bengal), Prayagraj (Uttar Pradesh), Amtala (West Bengal), Raigarh (Chhattisgarh) and Gossaigaon (Assam).
Baazar Style Retail Ltd, which houses brands Style Baazar and Express Baazar and is backed by investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, has initiated preliminary discussions with investment banks to launch an initial public offer in the coming year. The IPO was likely to be a combination of primary and secondary issues of shares and the plan was to facilitate partial exits for some of the investors and also mop up proceeds for growth capital and inorganic activity.
Mr.Surana believes that all 12 states put together have a population of 50 crore. There are many towns which have not seen an organised format of retailing in their segment. They would like to unleash the potential in such regions.
