Currently, the retail stores contribute to about 30% of its business, and with more stores coming up the company expects the share to increase by 50%. As a part of its expansion process, the company is also adding 20 new resorts - with an investment of over Rs 600 crore in the coming few years. The company would be coming up with an IPO later this year.
The company plans to come up with at least five resorts - with two in Maharashtra, one each in Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka and Sikkim in the next couple of years. Ramesh Ramanathan, managing director, MHRIL told FE, “We came up with our first retail store ‘Holiday’s world’ in 2002 and since then we have added 40 of them. This format has been very successful for the company purely due to the holiday-like ambience created in our stores. And it would continue to offer good returns to the company in future as well.”
The company operates on a unique membership model and has close to 60,000 members as of today, which the company plans to take to 1,25,000 in a year or two. A member of MHRIL has access to 40 resorts across India and about 3,700 resorts worldwide from RCI, the world’s largest holiday exchange provider.
The company has two brands in its portfolio — Club Mahindra Holidays and Zest. Club Mahindra Holidays is a product suitable for annual vacations, while Zest is targeted at those who seek short breaks. Ramanathan feels Zest will surely catch the fancy of young office goers.