Forex dealer Prithvi Exchange plans expansion

With demand for foreign currencies increasing from corporates, travellers and students studying in foreign universities, Chennai-based Prithvi Exchange, which is into selling foreign currencies, issuing forex cards and facilitating remittances abroad, is planning to expand store network to serve it’s customers better.

The company has decided to open 15 more stores in two years to take it’s total network to more than 45 outlets, managing director Pavan Kumar Kavad said in an interview.

While the company will deepen it’s presence in the South and it plans to expand into more cities in rest of India.

“In the last two years, we have doubled our store count from almost 15, we are now to 31 in the last quarter. We have similar plans of another 8-10 stores this year and probably another 5-6 stores in the next financial year also,” Mr. Kavad said.

“We are looking at expanding to cities like Vizag, Trivandrum, Bhubaneswar and Jaipur. In existing cities, where we are present, we are doubling down over there,” he said.

The company is looking at at least two centres in Mumbai this year and adding multiple stores in Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad.

“Chennai also has scope for another 1 or 2 more stores besides the 6 we already have. Bengaluru has scope for another 2-3 outlets,” he said.

The company which has IRDAI licence for insurance broking is seeing potential for growth in this business. It sells all types of insurance policies like life, non-life, general and travel.

“The scope for growth is huge. The insurance penetration in India is hardly about 6-8% people who have got insurance policy,” Mr. Kavad said.