IndiaRetailBiz

Aditya Birla Retail, the retailing arm of the $24 billion Aditya Vikram Birla group, led by Kumarmangalam Birla, which besides Trinethra Supermarkets chain in the South, has begun rolling out its flagship food and grocery retail chain ‘MORE’ in the West (in the cities like Pune and Ahmedabad) and in the North (New Delhi and suburns), is stepping up on gas  to expand its presence, particularly in the national capital.

It is likely to launch one ‘MORE’ store every day from January, 2008 and set up about 150 stores in Delhi and surrounding areas in the first six months of the New Year, says a livemint report.

This is a part of the grop’s plan to open 1,000 supermarkets and an undecided number of hypermarkets with an investment of around Rs. 9,000 crore in the next five years. The company is currently operating about 300 supermarkets and a hypermarket in Hyderabad.

The company is reported to have leased around 125,000 sq. ft in the Capital’s Metro Mall of Parsvnath Developers in Seelampur area with a view to set up a hypermarket. While, 20 ‘More’ supermarkets are already operating in Delhi, six-odd are likely to be launched within a fortnight.

Delhi and Mumbai are the two biggest retail markets of India with Delhi accounting for a total retail business of Rs. 64,039 crore and Mumbai accounting for Rs.53,071 crore in 2006 according to a report of research group Indicus Analytics.

Reliance Retail, which is emerging as India’s biggest retailer with an investment of Rs. 25,000 crore, is planning to open around 600 stores in the Delhi and its suburbs in the next three years. While, a bulk of these will be ‘Reliance Fresh’ grocery stores, at least two dozen are likely to be in hypermarket and several other speciality formats, including apparel, shoes, jewellery, and wellness.