|
Aditya Vikram Birla Retail, which entered the booming
retail sector only about a year ago, is on a mission to change the way
India shops. It has been opening, on an average, more than one supermarket
store every day with 430 already in place. The number includes Hyderabad-based
food and grocery chain of supermarkets, Trinethra, acquired by the group
in the initial stages.
The group also plans to invest between Rs 2.5 billion-
3.0 billion ($75 milion) to set up at least a dozen hypermarkets under
the brand name more.Megastore.
The first such hypermarket was launched in Vadodara last
week. Russell Berman, CEO of the hypermarket division announced, "We
hope to open a dozen hypermarkets in 2008-09. Based on the European style,
the hypermarket offers a seamless shopping experience of 60,000 products
by over 500 suppliers."
Spread across 1,50,000 sq.ft., it has been set up with an investment
of Rs 250 million. More hypermarkets will soon be opened in Ahmedabad
and National Capital Region (NCR), Delhi.
Said, Kumar Mangalam Birla, chairman of AVB Group, "We have enough
funding for our retail plans through internal accruals. We won't need
to raise money from the capital market. "The super and hypermarkets,
globally, start breaking even in the second year. The Indian stores would
also follow this average," he added.
"In my view, the Indian consumer is today under-served. Despite
the existence of large shopping outlets all over the country, many of
them do not offer the kind of shopping experience and ambience to the
Indian consumers which the people in most other parts of the world find
it a given," Mr Birla said.
Retail venture, according to Birla, is well positioned with presence
in metros and mini-metros like Vadodara, Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai,
Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mangalore, Pune, Mysore, Vizag and Vijayawada.
Birla was speaking to media persons in Vadodara on the occasion of the
launch of its second hypermarket. The first hypermarket, earlier owned
by Trinethra group, is located in Mysore.
There are no plans to expand its reach through the franchisee model.
|