According to Sanjay Lalbhai, chairman and managing director of Arvind Mills, "The retail space is buzzing and we think the time is perfect for us to announce our retail plans. Our retail expansion will straddle several formats. We would like to be present across the entire spectrum - value retail, to premium retail to luxury retail. Various options for entry into these sectors are being considered. We are ready with our plans for Megamart. This will be our first leg of retail expansion."

According to Lalbhai, "We pioneered the value retail space with ''Megamart''. Megamart currently is a 70-strong network, across 25 cities. Now we plan to aggressively expand this concept through the launch of Megamart Outlet Centre which will be 50,000 to 60,000 sq feet large format value stores."

Lalbhai said the company has already signed up prime properties in Chennai, Pune and Hyderabad for the expansion. These three stores will be operational during the course of this financial year. The first store in Chennai is expected to open in December 2007.

The company plans to sign-up several more properties during the coming months. Megamart plans to have 25 to 30 such Megamart Outlet Centres up and running across the top 20 Indian cities over the next four years.

The "Outlet Centre" concept operates with the objective of grouping a large number of brand outlet stores at the same location. An outlet store offers their merchandise to consumers at reduced prices, and the model offers a wide range of high-quality brand-name goods in a concentrated space at value prices.

The Megamart Outlet Centres will house a select set of brands. Megamart Outlet Centre says it will offer a great combination of an international shopping experience, value prices, and ambiences at par with some of the best retail chains of the world.

To achieve this, Megamart has engaged the services of reputed design house JHP London, an award winning design consultancy firm to design their stores.

JHP has designed and executed several retail projects throughout the world, and are the designers behind Selfridges, ASDA and other leading retail destinations globally, including retail space of the upcoming Heathrow Terminals.

To provide unparalleled service to customers, Megamart is investing heavily on training Fashion Assistants who will man the Outlet Centres, alongside sizeable investments in information technology.