Benefiting retailers and consumer with low rental

Mr Pradeep Seth, Chairman and Managing Director, Stadia Group, speaks about various mall projects of the company in a tête-à-tête with the Retailer

Retailer: How was Stadia Group of companies established?

Pradeep Seth (PS): Established about two years before, Stadia Group is the brainchild of Mr Pradeep Seth, a professional with over two decade’s experience in real estate industry. He is also former Managing Director, Ansal Group.

Retailer: What are the projects that the group is carrying out?

PS: Stadia group is involved in various real estate projects. The thrust areas are township, shopping malls, super centers, residential condos and hospitality projects. The group is coming up with shopping malls at Jodhpur, Karnal, Patiala and large super center projects at Patiala and Mandi Govind Garh.  The Jodhpur shopping mall known as Majestic Stadia is under construction.  Most of the shopping malls projects are expected to be operational by the end of 2009 and the middle of 2010.

Retailer: What constitutes the USP of the group?

PS: ‘Super Center’ concept is the USP of our company.  Super Centers are mega discount destinations offering products to customers on discounts up to 60 per cent. These are located on major national highways not too far from city limits.  The Patiala Super Center is located at about 10 kilometres from the city center. But, from Punjabi University, it is at a distance of only about two kilometers. Similarly, Super Center at Mandi Govind Garh is just one kilometer away from the city centre but serves neighbouring cities of  Khanna, Fatahgarh Sahib and Sirhind. Catering to a population of above 10 lakhs within a radius of 7 to 10 kms, a Super Center comprises over 200 retail stores, two to three major anchor’s stores, of which one would be in the form of a hyper city (large format hypermarket), multiplexes, entertainment area with budget hotel and banqueting facilities.

Retailer: What are the prominent brands in your malls and who are the anchor tenants?

Ps: Prominent brands that we have tied up with include PVR Cinemas, Globus, Nike, Adidas, Reebok, Titan, Koutons, Catmoss, Subway, Archies, Levi’s, Spyker, Moti Mahal.

Retailer: How do you evaluate the change in Indian consumer behaviour over the years?

PS: The end consumer has definitely evolved and is becoming brand conscious.  With the coming of organised retailing, Indian consumer is looking forward to more environment friendly places, where he can fulfill all his needs under one single roof. Hence, the concept of large format retail destinations is just taking shape.  We, at Stadia, are trying to fulfill the need of the consumer by providing him one stop destination, whereby he can buy his household needs as well as lifestyle products.  It is also a place where he can entertain himself with good cinema, theatre, live performances andd exotic food varieties.

Retailer: What is the status of your shopping mall projects?

PS: As we are a new player in the field, we have set a time frame of two to four years for our upcoming malls. We are confident that we should be able to complete our malls and projects in time.

Retailer: What is the success-mantra for a mall? 

PS: Success of a shopping mall depends upon various factors like location, design and tenant mix.

Retailer: Have you taken any measure to ensure success?

PS: Reasons behind failure of some of the big malls include wrong tenant mix, lack of maintenance and bad design.  We are taking precautions in all these respects so that our malls are not ‘a failure’.

Retailer: What is your prediction about the future of shopping malls in India?

PS: The future of shopping malls in India is very bright.  The key to success of shopping malls would be availability of good mall spaces at affordable rentals. We, at Stadia, have planned to provide excellent spaces in our shopping malls  with rental ranging between Rs 35 to Rs 55 per sq.ft per month so as to benefit both retailers and end consumers.