German retailing giant Metro Cash & Carry is currently holding discussions for acquisition of properties in over eight cities including Chennai, Delhi, Gurgoan, Pune, Coimbatore and Viskhapatnam for launching its distribution centres."We are keen to expand quickly across the country," Harsh Bahadur, MD of Metro Cash & Carry India, said, adding that all the 35 Indian cities with over one million population were the company's targets. Besides the cost of land, each distribution centre involved an investment of around Rs 65 crore.Bahadur said the company was about to sign acquisition deals in Delhi, Ghaziabad, Gurgoan and Chennai. Its Kolkata and Mumbai distribution centres, which are currently under construction, would be ready by the second quarter of the next year.The wholesale company opened its first distribution centre in Andhra Pradesh and third in the country here on today. Spread over an area of seven acres, the Rs 67-crore B2B distribution centre at Hyderabad has a selling space of 1 lakh square feet including a 20,000-sq ft temperature-controlled space to handle perishables like vegetables, fruits, dairy, meat and fish.Stating that the Hyderabad centre was expected to gross a turnover of up to Rs 300 crore p.a., Bahadur said that about 75,000 small and medium retailers, traders, hoteliers, caterers and other businesses had already been registered with the distribution outlet as customers.Apart from the existing one, the company is planning to open one more distribution centre in Hyderabad. Eventually, each major city in the country would two or three centres, Bahadur said.
