Aditya Birla Group to go it alone in retail

Labelled 'More', first store expected in Pune in June.

Ending months of suspense over its retail plans, the Aditya Birla Group today said it would go solo in setting up a 1,000-store network that would involve an investment of Rs 9,000 crore over three years.

Significantly, the company, which entered retail by acquiring 170 stores of retail chain Trinethra Super Retail this January, will rebrand these stores "More".

The company is looking at acquiring smaller retailers to rapidly gain share in the organised retail market that has players like Kishore Biyani's Future Group, Reliance Retail and the proposed Bharti Wal-Mart chain.

The organised retail sector accounts for nearly 4 per cent of India's $360 billion retail market.

Aditya Birla Group Chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla said the stores would be a mix of large hypermarkets of around 75,000 sq feet and supermarkets of 10,000 sq ft. The first store is being opened in Pune this June and will be positioned as a value-for-money outlet.

"The Indian shopping environment is underdeveloped due to the lack of economically viable real estate, a developed supply chain, trained manpower and backward linkages of suppliers. We will offer consumers more than what they expect. Hence the brand," Birla said.

He said Aditya Birla Retail will hire between 10,000 and 15,000 employees over five years and establish direct linkages with farmers, vendors and suppliers to lower costs.

Products at the outlets, starting with food and groceries, will be a mix of private labels and brands. "The basic private label will be called More and the medium range Select," said Aditya Birla Retail CEO Sumant Sinha.