i Develop Stocks Advisory

Bombay Dyeing to open first retail store in Dubai The Nusli Wadia-controlled Bombay Dyeing is understood to be stepping up its focus on the textiles business due to sluggish business trends in the real estate market. The company is now looking overseas to set up its retail stores and will open its first 4,000-sq ft concept stores in Dubai soon. The Mumbai-based Rs 1,000-crore major, in which Nusli Wadia has a 43% stake, has tied up with the Dubai-based luxury lifestyle retailer Rivoli Group. Bombay Dyeing ED SK Gupta will be in Dubai over the coming weekend for the purpose, a company insider said. Rivoli Group directors Adel Zurooni and Abdul Aziz along with fashion designers Sabyasaachi Mukherjee and Wendell Rodricks will be there at the time of inauguration next week. The store will cater to the mass, premium and designer segments with brands such as Sabyasachi Signature Line, Wendell Whites Signature line, Urban Living, Country Romance, CMYK, Sorbet and the Bombay dyeing evergreen printed collections. When contacted Mr Gupta declined to divulge details. “Things will be clearer in the next two days, especially about our Dubai plans,” he said. Established in 1879, Bombay Dyeing is the flagship company of the Wadia Group and has been in news for various controversies with Group Danone, Reliance Industries and the Kolkata-based jute baron Arun Bajoria. As part of its restructuring plan for its textiles division and consolidation of its manufacturing facilities at one location, the company has disposed off old equipment at Spring Mills and right sized its workforce. Currently, the textile sector accounts for about 14% of India’s total industrial production and contributes nearly 15% of total exports. The group is also exploring other retail opportunities, including building hypermarkets and partnering foreign brands in India. Meanwhile, Bombay Dyeing executive director MK Singh will vacate his office next month on completion of his notice period; AK Dasgupta, former CEO of Gherzi Eastern, a Bombay Dyeing Group company and special advisor to Bombay Dyeing, will assume overall charge of all real estate projects