Monday, September 05, 2005

Deccan Chronicle to acquire Odyssey Bookshop chain

From India Infoline: Deccan Chronicle to acquire Odyssey Book Stores

Close on the heels of Tatas taking a majority stake (76%) in Landmark chain, Deccan Chronicle is acquiring 100% of Odyssey, which has bookstores across a few towns in South India and one in Varanasi. As of now, Odyssey has 4 shops in Chennai, 3 in Hyderabad, 1 each in Trichy, Coimbatore, Salem and Varanasi. Besides books (primarily English books, but in Tamil Nadu they also stock some Tamil books including ours - kizhakku pathippagam), they have greeting cards, toys, music CDs and some FMCG products. They seem to be interested in moving into larger shops from their current size and want to grow across the country.

Landmark under Tatas will probably be looking for even larger shops concentrating in fewer metros. Odyssey seems to be looking at a few more towns than Landmark.