RPG to set up 4 hypermarkets under Spencer

According to Sanjiv Goenka, vice-chairman, RPG Enterprises, the first hypermarket will be coming up this year along the EM Bypass and the second one is likely to come up at the South City in Kolkata.

"We are looking for suitable land in Behala, Rajarhat and in other convenient locations," said Goenka. "Our plan is to set up the hypermarkets first, to be followed by around 10 supermarkets in the next two years that would significantly strengthen the retail business in this part of the country," he added.

The major problem is with the combination of the proper location and the size for these type of markets, he said.

"The average area required for a hypermarket is around 40,000-60,000 sq ft whereas for a supermarket it is 7,000-10,000 sq ft," said Goenka. The retail business is expected to contribute around 25 per cent of the group's turnover, reaching around Rs 2,500 crore by 2006-07.

Of this, nearly Rs 1,300-1,500 crore was expected to come from Spencer. Currently the annual turnover of the retail business of group stands at around Rs 528 crore and is expected to reach around Rs 750 crore by 2004-05.

At present mainly in the Southern and Western part of the country FoodWorld is spread across nearly 80 outlets in 12 metros.

Including Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Coimbatore among others, whereas Hyderabad has seen the group's first hypermarket.

The group had recently announced plan to invest around Rs 600 crore in its retails business.