Landmark plans $340m investment in Babyshop brand

Landmark Group, the Gulf retail conglomerate, said Monday it plans to invest AED250m ($68m) annually over the next five years to expand its children’s brand Babyshop across the region. The company plans to add 33 outlets, including five new UAE stores, in a roll-out that will add 250,000 sq ft of retail space to its portfolio by mid-2012, Landmark said in a statement. It’s the latest in a flurry of expansion plans for the company, which counts global brands New Look, Reiss and Kurt Geiger among its retail franchises Landmark said earlier this month it would open 200 stores in total across the Middle East by end-2012, in a growth plan set to create around 700 jobs. The company also said it planned to Have 100 restaurants in its food and beverage portfolio by 2015, representing an investment push of AED250m ($68m). “Expansion for all the brands is pretty much on the cards,” CEO Vipen Sethi told Arabian Business. “We are opening new stores all the time.” In its fiscal year ending June 2011, Landmark’s retail arm recorded top line growth of around 24 percent, Sethi said, followed by strong sales during the month of Ramadan. The company is also eyeing the franchise rights to a number of international brands, he said. “We are looking, we don’t know as yet.”