Trent Ltd, the Tata Group’s retail company, has adopted the franchise route to make entry in the Tier II and Tier III cities.

The lifestyle retail major will open 80-90 Westside stores by the next five years.

Out of this, 25-30 stores will be opened under franchisee route in cities including Allahabad, Belgaum, Salem, Siliguri and Guntur.

The company said that it will also increase its annual income by Rs 6-7 crore through this scheme.

Ms. Neeti Chopra, head-marketing, Trent Ltd, stated, “We have been operating a test franchise store in Mysore for more than a year now. It has proved successful and now we want to replicate this model elsewhere in the country. We would be targeting the young, upcoming families in these towns.”

The company said that its franchise-run stores would be half the size of the company-owned stores at 8,000 to 12,000 sq ft and would entail an investment of around Rs 1.5-2 crore.

The company will manage the human resources, IT, marketing and stocks for these franchises.

Trent and franchise holders will divide profits from the stores at an agreed proportion. The company is anticipating Rs 6 cr to 10 cr sales per store from the franchise stores.

For retailers who have been confronted with increasing costs, mainly in terms of realty, the franchise mode could be a cost-efficient and rather safe alternative to extend their brand. In this model, rents and related costs is to be suffered by the proprietor of the franchise.

Ms. Chopra said that the company is looking at partnering foreign companies for their retail forays in the Indian market.

“We are associated with Benetton for the Sisley brand of stores. Going forward, we will look at a couple of more similar partnerships. We are in talks with several players,” Ms. Chopra added.

Trent also owns the Star Bazaar Hypermarket and Landmark Stores. A fourth Star Bazaar is expected to come up in Mumbai.