Bharti Walmart to open 40 retail stores by December

HYDERABAD - Bharti Walmart plans to open 40 more retail and three cash-and-carry wholesale stores by December, the company said Tuesday.

Rajan Bharti Mittal, vice chairman of Bharti Enterprises, told reporters here that the two cash-and-carry stores would come up in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh by the year-end. It currently has three such stores.

“We are planning to open more retail stores. The number of retail stores will go up to 140 by December. We presently have 100 stores,” he said.

The firm will be looking at south India next year. “This process is on. Andhra Pradesh and the south will be our foray. We will also set up cash-and-carry stores here,” he said.

The company plans to invest $2 billion in the next 10 years. Mittal said it was close to its yearly expansion plan.

Mittal, who is also president of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), was talking to reporters on the sidelines of its national executive committee meeting.

Bharti has two distribution centres in Haryana and Punjab. It has also tied up with 150 farmers in Punjab to buy vegetables directly from them on a trial basis.

Mittal said this was only a small beginning and pointed out that Walmart had tied up with 400,000 farmers in China and was procuring $25 billion worth of manufactured goods in that country.

He said FICCI was happy at the government proposing to allow 49 percent FDI in multi-brand retailing and pointed out that the industry body had responded to the discussion paper on the subject.

“Let the government get the feel of it. What value it can add. As an industry it is only at the starting point. It should create an ecosystem and a conducive environment on agriculture, logistics, foodgrain and also manufacturing,” Mittal said.

FICCI has voiced some apprehensions, especially with regard to the restriction that such stores should be allowed only in cities with a population of one million.

Mittal wants access to cities of over 200,000-250,000 population. “It is in the smaller cities that the kind of availability is very low, choices are low, hygiene is low. We need to go there and bring a change. If the government wants to do a test trial we will be willing to do so,” he added.

Mittal forecast that the modern or organized retailing, which currently stands at 4-5 percent, will grow to 20 percent in 10 years.

“That is how the benchmark is if you see Brazil, Mexico and China. After 10 years, the modern retailing was 15-20 percent and India is no different. There is enough scope for everybody to play,” he contended.