Tribhovandas Bhimji Zaveri to take franchisee route for expansion.

Jeweller Tribhovandas Bhimji Zaveri (TBZ-The Original) plans to increase its retail space from 93,000 square feet to 150,000 sq ft in two-three years through the franchisee route. The listed 150-year old firm is looking to scale up its domestic operations in eastern and north-western India before expanding to other parts of the country.

'We are looking at places like Rajasthan, Chandigarh, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Ranchi, Patna, Siliguri, Bhubaneswar and Guwahati for opening franchisee outlets. The first such franchisee store is coming up at Dhanbad,' said CMD Shrikant Zaveri.

At present, the jeweller has 29 stores in 22 cities across 10 states in the country. The company plans to focus more on the franchisee stores and reduce dependence on its own stores, said Zaveri. 'It will be a 60:40 mix,' he said.

The stores will be operated on 'franchisee-owned, franchisee-operated' model, which requires the entire store inventory to be on the books of the franchisee. This will help the company scale up its domestic operations at a faster pace without increasing its balance sheet size, resulting in improved return on capital employed and return on equity .

The company had clocked a turnover of Rs. 1,930 crore in 2014-15.


ET