A realty boom has given Calcutta its biggest home solutions store.

Home Town, part of Home Solutions Retail (India) Ltd — a subsidiary of Kishore Biyani’s Future Group — will set up a 250,000-sq-ft store in Rajarhat.

“The store will offer all kinds of home solutions — be it plumbing, tiling and electrician services to appliances and accessories of interior decoration, including design ideas. We are opening such stores across the country, but the one in Calcutta will be the biggest,” Atul Takle, head (communication), Future Group, told Metro. According to the company’s plans, the store should be operational by December 2007.

Home Town in Calcutta has taken up the entire Block by Block mall being developed by Bengal Shrachi Housing Development Ltd on lease in New Town.

“Our store will showcase 150 formats for different styles of rooms to give the buyers a basket of design and style options for their homes,” added Takle.

The fact that one of the pioneers of Indian retail, the Future Group, has chosen Calcutta as the location for its largest store has made the realty industry happy.

“The potential of a planned township like Rajarhat is evident because biggies like the Future Group are willing to put their best foot forward and develop their own set-up,” pointed out Abhijit Das, regional director, Tramell Crow Meghraj, property consulting major.

Not just in Calcutta, Home Solutions Retail is aggressively expanding its operations across the country.

A Home Town store, half the size of the proposed one in Calcutta, was opened in Noida 10 days ago.

In the next nine months, nine other stores will come up in Ahmedabad, Pune, Bangalore, Thane (Mumbai) and Gurgaon.

“Our plan is to evolve as a mix of Ikea and Home Depot and combine the best of services on the lines of these two global home solutions majors,” said Takle.

The investment per store will be around Rs 20 crore and the company is expecting to mop up a revenue of Rs 1,800 crore from the nine stores in the next fiscal.

source : www.telegraphindia.com