Metro Brands, Farah Malik, CEO & MD: Aspiring to be largest pan-India retailer

13 December 2021, Mumbai:

We continue to see momentum going forward and e-commerce has become a 12% contributor to our sales. We are also witnessing strong demand in our stores, says Farah Malik, CEO & MD, Metro Brands.

Tell us more about the company, the anchor book response in particular?
Metro Brands Limited has allocated 8.2 million equity shares to 28 anchor investors and raised Rs 410.25 crores ahead of the company’s proposed IPO at the upper price band.

The anchor book was subscribed by marquee investors, including Goldman Sachs, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, GMO, Pinebridge, Valiant, University of Notre Dame. We had eight mutual funds who applied through 11 schemes, including ICICI Prudential, HDFC, Tata India Consumer Fund, Kotak Mutual Fund, Birla Mutual Fund, UTI, Sundaram Mutual Fund, and life insurance majors such as SBI Life, HDFC Life, and Tata AIA Life.

What is the expansion plan?
We mentioned in our disclosure that we will be opening 260 stores by the end of fiscal 2025. All those stores are distributed among our entire portfolio. We would be opening up Metro, Mochi, Walkway, and Crocs stores as part of that 260.

It doesn't include any stores under the Walkway as a franchise model. These are all company-owned and operated stores, and secondly, we are into an MoU with FitFlop to manage their distribution in India. So this number of 260 stores does not include the FitFlop stores that we may open over the next three years.

We have seen great penetration throughout India from metro cities, Tier I, Tier II, and Tier III cities. We are looking at opening up across India and not looking at geographic concentrations, but we are making sure we continue our quest to be the largest pan-India retailer.

ET (The news article has not been edited by DFU Publications staff)

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