The Hindu Business Line : Planet M plans more outlets

PLANET M, the music retail chain, plans to take its tally of stores to 100 from 77 currently, in the next four to five months, by primarily expanding in the South.

The chain, which on Thursday opened its second store in Chennai, will spread out to cities such as Mangalore and Kochi, said Mr Ajay Mehra, Chief Operating Officer, Times Retail. Planet M has four outlets in Bangalore and two in Hyderabad.

Of its 77 outlets, 34 are exclusive outlets and 43 are shop-in-shops - what Planet M calls `Satellites'. Mr Mehra said further expansion will involve a similar mix of exclusive outlets and shop-in-shops.

He said the relevance of chains such as Planet M had increased in recent years, with customers looking for a favourable shopping environment as also a wide range of music content.

Music retail chains account for 10-12 per cent of the sales in the organised segment, which is pegged at over Rs 1,000 crore, and Mr Mehra estimated this figure to increase to 25 per cent in the next couple of years "if everybody expands."

The proportion of cassettes to CDs sold has fallen from 7:1 about three years back to 3:1. In metros, the ratio is 1:1, he said.

Planet M stores, where every third visitor ends up a buyer, derive nearly 30 per cent of revenues from the non-music home entertainment category, and this segment is growing rapidly, Mr Mehra said.

The chain itself has been growing by 40-45 per cent year-on-year for the last three years, though he refused to disclose absolute figures.