The Gitanjali group is stepping up its retail foray one notch. The company that owns brands like D’damas, Asmi, Sangini, Nakshatra and Gili, has more than 1250 outlets, covers 500,000 Sq.ft of retail space, has acquired a 76% stake in Salasar Retail.

Salasar Retail is a chain of midsize departmental stores spread across India with 10 stores. Gitanjali will soon rebrand the acquired stores as Maya. These stores will offer jewelry and lifestyle products. Gitanjali expects a turnover of 1000 Cr.by year 2013, with around 70% from jewelry sales from Maya.

“The acquisition would help Gitanjali Group in expanding its retail footprint and grow the jewelry business”, said Mehul Choksi, CMD of the Gitanjali Group.

The company is planning to increase its retail space to 1.5 million sq.ft in the next three years. The group also operates 143 jewelry retail stores in the US through the acquisitions of Samuels Jewelers and Roger Jewelers.

With the acquisition of Salasar, the group has added approximately 200,000sq.ft of operational area in cities like Delhi, Cuttack, Kanpur, Gwalior, Guwahati and Indore. “This will be a revenue-sharing model for national and international brands which will be retailed through Maya stores”, said Devasish Dutta, CEO, Gitanjali Lifestyle.

Gitanjali currently works with leading mall developers under the revenue-sharing model. The average ticket size in Maya stores in the tier 2 and tier 3 cities is expected to be Rs 25,000 per customer for diamond jewelry. The company expects majority of its sales from Maya stores to come from Jewelry Sales.