Indian Retailer

Acting in accordance to the competitive expansion of grocery retailers, Aditya Birla Retail Ltd. (ABRL) leading chain of food and grocery retail – More, incorporated in May 2007 has major expansion plans to have 700 supermarkets and eight hypermarkets across towns and cities by the end of fiscal year 2009,according to a company official.

Speaking exclusively to ImagesFood.com, Thomas Varghese, CEO, Aditya Birla Retail Ltd., says, “ By the end of this financial year we expect to have approximately 700 supermarkets and eight hypermarkets across towns and cities. Our existing hypermarkets are located in Baroda, Mysore, Aurangabad, Bangalore and Indore. We are expecting to open three additional hypermarkets in Thane, Delhi and Hyderabad in the next few months.”

Regarding the break up of the 700 supermarkets by March 2010, he revealed that, the company would have 331 stores in metros, 102 stores in tier I cities remaining 203 stores in tier II cities and 64 stores in tier III cities.

When asked about how lucrative the big modern formats prove to be in tier II and tier III cities, Varghese cited, “Any format which is supported by the right business model and the right rent to revenue ratio will prove attractive. Nowadays customers are brand conscious and extremely price sensitive, they also look for retailers who offer them consistently quality product. Tier II and III cities are within easy reach of the agricultural markets and have good local produce. So customers over here are more quality conscious, relatively while setting up our modern formats we make sure to consistently deliver quality with price to attract these customers, so its proves to be successful over here.”

Currently the company has a retail presence of around 642 outlets in supermarket formats having minimum size of 2,200 sq ft. in 101 cities. Furthermore, the group also operates five hypermarket formats under the brand name More Megastore in Mysore, Vadodra, Indore, Aurangabad and Bangalore, on an average spread of over 60,000 sq ft each offerings of over 60,000 products across fruits and vegetables, groceries, FMCG products.

— Akansha Srivastava