In a bid to encash the ongoing retail boom and increasing disposable incomes of the burgeoning middle class, Bose Corporation India plans to increase its footprint in the country with a foray into Tier II cities.
Among the cities on its radar are Jaipur, Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Pune and Cochin and the company expects to roll out in these cities in the next 6 months.
It is also planning to expand its presence in its biggest markets -- Delhi and Mumbai -- with one more store in the national capital region and two additional stores in Mumbai that would take up its total strength to 20 stores in India.
The move will propel India as Bose's third largest retail market after the US and Japan. Bose has 157 stores across the world excluding India, with its largest market -- the United States -- alone accounting for 116 stores.
The company's second largest retail presence is in Japan with 23 stores. China currently has only 2 stores, both in Hong Kong.
"We believe that Tier II cities have the potential to be good markets for Bose as our experience at Ahmedabad has shown. This was the first Tier II city where we opened shop and so far the results have been very encouraging," said Ratish Pandey, general manager, Bose Corporation India.
"Chandigarh, Ludhiana and Pune are already established as good retail destinations, but even in cities like Cochin we have very high brand awareness. We decided on Jaipur as lot of customers from Rajasthan drive up to Delhi for purchases and we get a good number of enquiries from there," he added.
The electronics acoustics major, which was founded by Indian expat Amar G. Bose in 1964 at Framingham in Massachusetts, entered the Indian market in 1998 and presently has 12 retail points in the country.
These include three in the national capital region, two in Mumbai, two in Bangalore, two in Kolkata and one each at Chennai, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad.
Bose Corporation India has seen an overall year-on-year growth of over 60 per cent for the past three years.