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Bharti Enterprises will begin rolling
out its retail outlets with about six stores in early
2008, reports indiaretailbiz.com. This was revealed
by CEO Sunil Bharti Mittal.
Wal-Mart, with whom Bharti has partnership
for retail in India, is not currently allowed to invest
in the front-end operations. Bharti will have sole ownership
of the fron-end retail business until government policy
is changed to allow FDI in multi brand retail.
The branding details for the front-end
operations are yet to be finalised between the two,
informed Mittal. He, however, clarified that there are
no policy issues if the two partners decide to use Wal-Mart's
name in the branding of the front-end operations. Bharti
management has been avoiding the issue saying that branding
will be decided based on outcome of consumer surveys.
Referring to long pending issue of isigning
the agreement with Wal-Mart, Mittal said, "The
legal issues like brand agreement, franchise arrangement
may take some time, but we are going ahead as per the
plan." Mittal indicated July first week as the
probable time in which the legal agreement would be
signed.
The two partners have, however, have started
recruiting manpower while they are busy sorting out
the legal issues. Bharti has also tied up with Global
Retail School for training its personnel.
While, Wal-Mart is expected to provide
supply chain, logistics and technical support for the
front-end operations, it will be able to run the cash
and carry business as financial partners, as well.
Bharti has already announced an investment
of 2.5 billion dollars in the front-end operations by
2015. This will be exclusive of real estate costs.
Source: www.indiaretailbiz.com
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