IndiaRetailBiz

Subhiksha– India’s largest food and grocery discount chain– according to a media statement reported by Moneycontrol, while confirming relocation of 5 to 10 per cent of its stores, has strongly denied any pay cuts for its employees.

“No pay cuts have been effected at all in Subhiksha. We are not proposing any pay cuts either.” The company has further stated, “We are trying to relocate 5–10% of our stores to take advantage of falling rentals across the country. There is no move to close stores anywhere per se. However, as we have added, over 1,500 stores in last 24 months if some 5% locations are wrong we do not see any stigma in exiting them.”

According to another statement published by Business Standard, Mohit Khattar, President, Subhiksha, has attributed close down of some stores to economic slowdown. He is confident of reopening all stores by January, 2009.

“Every company is impacted by the slowdown. It is not as if we have closed down all our stores. This quarter, we are going slow on our expansion, but the next quarter, we will be normal on our expansion.” says Khattar.

“In cities such as Mumbai and Delhi, where property prices have gone up sharply, we have relocated maximum stores. We are a neighbourhood format and need to look at business viability closely. We will reopen all our stores by January,” he said.

Subhiksha, it may be recalled, had scaled its operations to 1650 stores including nearly 115 stores in Mumbai and 200 stores in the National Capital Region (NCR). The retail chain had also announced plans to further add 3,000 stores by the end of 2010.

Referring to stoppage of supplies by FMCG companies, Subhiksha’s Khattar further says:

“We have deliberately slowed our supplies to implement the SAP system. By Janaury, everything will be on track.”