NEW DELHI: Kolkata-based major consumer electronics retailer Great Eastern Retail has taken over the operations of 15 outlets of Delhi-based Sargam Electronics, one of the major retailers in the domain in north India, after it was struck badly by the pandemic and has been shutting down its stores.With this takeover, the Kolkata-based company is set to make its foray in the national capital.
The move will make Great Eastern Retail enter the bracket of top-five electronics retailer companies across the country as well as allow it a foothold in the national capital region, which has a major market for electronics.
Pulkit Baid (39), the third-generation owner and director of Great Eastern Retail, a company that first set up its flagship store in erstwhile Calcutta's Dalhousie Square in 1976, said they are in the process of signing the lease deeds for the outlets.
"With the takeover, we are expecting an average turnover of Rs 400-500 crore from these 15 outlets. Since the pandemic, no major player has entered the space vacated by Sargam so far, which is a good opportunity for us to set foot here," said Baid.
The company at present has 85 stores across different states. It has a major presence in eastern India including West Bengal and Odisha. Besides, it has operations in Uttar Pradesh (Lucknow and Varanasi), Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh (Vizag).
Sargam, which had 70 stores across Delhi and an average turnover of around Rs 850 crore shut down its 40 stores during the two years of the pandemic owing to losses and long closure in the successive lockdowns. Of the remaining 30, the Kolkata-based company is taking over operations of 15 stories of which one is located in Gurugram.
"We will be running the stores in our brand name. Some of the existing manpower if they come as new applicants can be taken in as well. We will be buying the store fixtures such as the façade, the equipment, among other things," said the director.