Rosebys UK to be resurrected in global push

Setting out an ambitious plan for global expansion, Dalmia pledged to create a $200bn (£132.51bn) global retail chain in the next five years.

He said that despite Rosebys’ administration in the UK in September last year, financial restructuring being conducted could enable the launch of a UK chain, although he hinted that it might not use the Rosebys brand.

“We already have 50 to 60 Rosebys stores in India,” Dalmia said, citing his target as 300 by the end of this financial year. “Later this year we plan to restart Rosebys stores in the UK.”

He told news agency Press Trust of India that in future “the growth engine for my business will be retail. This year we will start expanding across the world”.

Dalmia, chairman of technology-to-retail-distribution business Dalmia Group and textiles manufacturer GHCL, said: “In five years’ time I want Rosebys to be present almost in all the countries in the world.”

GHCL’s stores business generates sales of about INR25bn (£331.8m) at present, so to achieve his plans would require growth to about 400 times the present level. “You need to think big if you want to grow big,” he said.

In 2006, GHCL acquired the then 320-store Rosebys for £27m, but the UK operations hit the buffers last year with the closure of 201 stores.

Edinburgh Woollen Mill subsequently bought 77 of those stores out of administration and is amalgamating them into its Ponden Mill business.

After the UK, Dalmia intends to target Poland and Romania, followed by Asian countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia
and Thailand.