Dabur revives retail plans with leaner touch

Dabur has changed the blueprint for its ‘newu’ health and beauty stores, its retail business launched in December 2007, on which it later put the brakes owing to the exorbitant rentals that prevailed some time back, reports Saurabh Turakhia.

Dabur has changed the blueprint for its ‘newu’ health and beauty stores, its retail business launched in December 2007, on which it later put the brakes owing to the exorbitant rentals that prevailed some time back. The changes include store size reduction, introduction of private labels under the ‘newu’ brand and some international tieups. The company has cautiously opened eight newu till now.

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“Store size will be halved to a range of about 700 to 1,200 sq feet. Pharmacy section, earlier a part of the stores will be done away with. Now only OTC drugs will be sold through the stores,” a source at Dabur said.

The stores will sell private label products in baby care, general merchandise and fashion accessories under the ‘newu’ brand. Tie-ups with Turkish brand Moda and Australian brand QVS have been forged for quicker turnarounds. While not divulging the expected contribution of the business to the overall turnover, the source said that depending on real estate market conditions, the company will open about 15 more stores in the next fiscal. New properties are being scouted in Bangalore and Delhi-NCR.