Aditya Birla Retail lines up Rs 300 cr for hypermarts

Stepping on the gas for its retail expansion, Aditya Birla Retail (ABRL), the retail arm of the Aditya Birla Group, plans to invest around Rs 250-300 crore for setting up at least a dozen hypermarkets under the brand name more.Megastore in the country.

Launching the company's first such hypermarket in Vadodara, Russell Berman, chief executive officer, hypermarket division, ABRL, said, "We will probably open a dozen hypermarkets in the country in 2008-09. The hypermarket offers a seamless shopping experience offering 60,000 products from over 500 suppliers."

Spread over 1,50,000 sq ft, the Vadodara store had been set up at an investment of Rs 25 crore to be followed by more such hypermarkets in Ahmedabad and the National Capital Region (NCR), said Berman.

On the funding of its retail plans, Aditya Birla Group Chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla said, "We have enough funds for our retail plans through internal accruals and won't be raising money from the capital market. As for the investment, it depends on the scale of rollout in the country. However, it will be substantiative enough for a national presence."

Confirming the diversified conglomerate's investment commitment for Gujarat, Kumar Mangalam Birla said the group would be investing Rs 2,500 crore in the state over the next few years.

"We are tripling our viscose staple fibre (VSF) capacity at our Kharach plant from the current 80 tonnes per day (TPD) to 250 TPD by May-end at an investment of Rs 1,000 crore. Also, our telecom company, Idea Cellular, is expanding its network in Gujarat at an investment of Rs 1,000 crore by the next financial year," said Birla.