The Hindu : Business : Liberty Shoes to diversify into ceramics

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Apr 10, 2004

Business

Business

Liberty Shoes to diversify into ceramics

By Our Staff Correspondent

CHENNAI, APRIL 9. Liberty Shoes will make a foray into ceramic tiles business by the year-end. A new company, Liberty Whiteware Limited, has already been floated to facilitate Liberty's entry into the new business. It will be a wholly owned subsidiary of its family company, Geo Fin Investments Limited.

Adarsh Gupta, Executive Director, Liberty Group, told The Hindu that a substantial amount would be invested in the new business. While declining to quantify the level of investment, he said it would be done in a phased manner. The funds for the investment would come through its family outfit, Geo Fin Investments Limited.

Liberty Shoes had also entered into branded retailing of its own products and other fashion items through a recently floated subsidiary company, Liberty Retail Revolutions Ltd. Liberty Shoes has a 51 per cent stake in the company. The promoters hold the balance.

Mr. Gupta, who was here today to inaugurate an exclusive retail showroom of Liberty Retail Revolutions Ltd., said these stores would sell items such as watches and sunglasses apart from all ranges and varieties of shoes. He said in retailing, Retail Revolutions would invest Rs. 25 crores in India and Rs. 6 crores in international markets. The company would take shops on a lease basis. It hoped to generate a turnover of Rs.75 crores from the retail business in the next two years. He estimated that each store would generate nearly Rs. 3 crores annually. On the Revolution outlets, he said the first one was set up in Mumbai and Chennai was the second store. He said 25 more such outlets would be opened within the country over the next 18 months. The company planned to open six such outlets outside India.

The Executive Director said at present Liberty Shoes had three plants in Haryana. Its total capacity was around 60,000 pairs of footwear a day. It was setting up a fourth plant at Dehradun, which would make 5,000 pairs a day. The plant would go operational in December. It would involve an outlay of Rs. 5 crores. The Dehradun plant would produce only leather footwears. The company, similarly, was planning to set up another plant in the South. It would be either in Andhra Pradesh or Karnataka.

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