The Loot, a multi-brand discount chain promoted by Loot India Pvt Ltd, is planning to have 100 stores by 2009-end.

A week ago, the company opened three stores — one each in Manipur, Itanagar and Bhagalpur. At present, there are 94 The Loot stores across the country.

R P Chhabra, CEO, The Loot, said, "We are growing at 100% year-on-year and intend to maintain the same pace this year, too. Many tier II and tier III cities have a lot of potential and we will open many more stores in the coming years."

Out of the 94 stores, the company owns 30% or 27 stores while the rest are operated through franchisees. All its future stores will be through the franchise model.

Loot India was earlier looking at 2009 to go public, but now intends to do this only after two years. "Although we will need large funds to fuel our expansion plans, but this decision (to defer the IPO) was taken looking at our turnover, market share and other market factors. We will now go public only after two years," Chhabra added.

The company received four industry awards at the beginning of the year. It bagged Star Entrepreneur Award at the International India Innovation Summit, Critics Choice Award at India Fashion Forum 2009; Young Retail Achiever of the Year Award at the Reid & Taylor Awards and Star Youth achiever Award at The Global Youth Marketing Forum.

Shailaja Sharma/ DNA-Daily News & Analysis Source: 3D Syndication