Gujarat to get 300 'more' stores

Aditya Birla groups' Rs 9,000 crore retail venture will be rolling out at least 300 'more.' stores in Gujarat within the next two years.

Of these, around 50 stores are slated to be rolled out by Aditya Birla Retail Ltd (ABRL) by end of financial year 2007-08. The supermarkets' format stores will be set up in cities like Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Mehsana and other cities.

According to Vahid Ravji, vice president "" operations, ABRL, at least 10 'more.' stores will come up in Ahmedabad by end of October 2007.

Typically spread over an area of 3,000-6,000 sq ft, each supermarket will feature four key areas of merchandise - fruits and vegetables, staple foods, processed foods and snacks, and non-food apparels.

"We will be rolling out 50 more. stores in Gujarat before March 2008 in cities like Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Mehsana and other cities. Similarly, we will set up another 250 stores in next year," said Ravji.

He further added that the company is also setting up 15 more stores in Mumbai on a monthly basis.

"Presently, we have five stores in Mumbai and we are setting up 15 more stores every month. By the end of the year, there will be at least 75 stores in Mumbai and 45 stores in Pune, from where we began our retail venture," added Ravji.

Meanwhile, Sumant Sinha, CEO, ABRL said the company would be investing around Rs 8,000-10,000 crore over the next 3-4 years. Sinha also said that apart from the supermarket formats, ABRL is also planning to set up at least one hypermarket of 'more. megastore' brand in Ahmedabad.

"Gujarat is an important market for us and contributes around 10 per cent of our total business," added Sinha.