Metro to take Carrefour's Meerut store

German retail chain Metro has decided to take up the Meerut store of French retailer Carrefour, sources said. Earlier this month, Walmart, the world's largest retailer, had replaced three of the stores set up by Carrefour in India with its own. Carrefour, which has been operating its cash-and-carry (wholesale) business in India since 2010, has exited the India market with four out of its five stores in India going out to rivals. The one remaining store, in Bangalore, is yet to be acquired by any company. When contacted, a Metro spokesperson said the company has no comments to offer on the matter at this time.

Both Metro and Walmart are learnt to have struck a deal with the land owners concerned. American chain Walmart had taken up Carrefour stores in Delhi, Jaipur and Agra, according to sources. Walmart, too, did not comment on the matter. While Walmart has 20 cash-and-carry stores in India, Metro operates 16 of them in the country.

Walmart, which has announced an ambitious expansion plan to take the number of stores to 50 in the next four or five years, will get to enter two new markets (Delhi and Jaipur) through the latest acquisition of Carrefour stores in these locations. Metro, which is also on an aggressive expansion path, will enter a growing market - Meerut - as it takes over the Carrefour store there. According to experts, the ready-made stores could give a time advantage of 12-18 months to a retailer.

Carrefour, the second-largest retail chain in the world after Walmart, runs 10,000 stores in 34 countries and has an estimated global revenue of euro 100 billion. It had entered the cash-and-carry segment in India in 2010, as foreign companies could not run multi-brand retail or supermarket businesses in the country. Subsequently, when 51 per cent foreign investment was permitted by the United Progressive Alliance government, the French retail chain failed to get an Indian partner and found the sourcing norms associated with the retail policy too tough to comply with.