Spencer's Retail, part of the diversified RPG group, will invest Rs 1,500 crore across different formats in the next 12 months to open additional 250 stores.

Presently, the company operates 400 stores across 65 cities in India under different formats like Super market, Hyper market, Express and Dailies. The new hypermarkets will be opened in cities such as Nashik, Kanpur, Indore, Surat, Bangalore etc.

The company expects to invest around Rs 10 crore on each hypermarket, while the small stores will require an investment of Rs 3 - 4 crore each. It plans to finance the expansion through internal funds.

The company expects that the new store openings would help the retail chain to post a revenue of Rs 1800 crore in 2008/09, up from Rs 1000 crore a year ago.

The company is also holding talks with number of international retail players for setting up joint ventures in the country.