After beginning operations from Bangalore, Germany's cash-and-carry wholesale format major Metro Group today said it will invest euro 300 million in India and gradually expand to 33 cities to grow operations."We will be opening stores in Kolkata, Chennai and Mumbai apart from Hyderabad and will be making an investment of euro 300 million for this," Henry Birr, president (Asia-Pacific) of Metro Group said here.The company plans to spread to 33 Indian cities as it expands in the country. "We will be spreading to cities that have a population of over 1 million," Birr said.The company invested around euro 50 million per store in India, going by which the total proposed investment could go up to euro 1.6 billion in times to come. "However, initially we have a board approval for euro 300 million only and we would be increasing investments in the future after considering various factors," Birr said.India is "an attractive market" for Metro wholesale concept. Encouraged by the international success of its Cash and Carry format, the company has opened two distribution Centres in Bangalore in the last quarter of 2003 which offer business customers an array of over 8,000 food and 9,000 non-food items in different pack sizes under one roof, Birr said.The average size of a Metro store in India would be about 30,000 sq mtrs...The company is open to both lease as well as acquisition mode for land, Birr said.
