Having cornered the two wheeler market in India, the Hero Motors Group now plans to script a similar story in the retailing of high-end lifestyle and home decoration products. The group has partnered Stalwart Homestyles, which an exporter of home décor items to international retail chains such as Bloomingdales.

The retail venture’s stores have been branded Oma, and will have an initial investment of Rs40 crore. The company plans to open a total of 12 stores by 2008, and has inaugurated the first two stores in the capital Delhi earlier this week.

According to Pavan Munjal, managing director, Hero Motors, there is a vacuum in this segment, which “needed a corporate driven, luxury oriented home décor brand”. The company hopes that their store Oma will fill this vacuum by offering Indian homemakers elements of refined living, without having to travel abroad to do their shopping