Aditya Birla Retail Limited (ABRL), the retail arm of the Aditya Birla Group, aims to be a $2.5-billion entity by 2017-18, a top company official said.
"We aim to become a $2.5-billion entity by 2017-18. The growth will be driven by opening new stores, launching private labels and closing unviable stores, among other initiatives," Aditya Birla Retail's CEO, Thomas Varghese, told PTI here.
"In the next one-two years, our focus will be on consolidation and getting us to profitability. Our focus will be on profitability of the existing network rather than to grow the network," he said.
"We will be opening 12 hypermarket stores every year at an investment of nearly Rs 18-crore per store, spread across 55,000-75,000 sq ft. This year, our stores will come up in places like Delhi (May), Hyderabad (June), Surat, Pune and Nashik, among others," Varghese said.
"Besides, we plan to open 70-100 supermarket stores every year at an investment of nearly Rs 50-60-lakh per store, spread across 2,500-2,800 sq ft pan-India," he said.
The company currently has 632 supermarkets and six hypermarkets under the brand 'MORE' and 'MORE Megastore', respectively.
The company also plans to close down unviable supermarket stores this fiscal, Varghese said, adding, "in FY 10, the company closed down about 55-60 odd stores across Mumbai, Pune, Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat and in the south. The closures in the south are less as compared to the north."
"If the business is not profitable then it does not make any sense to continue with it. Stores are closed due to several reasons including high rentals, poor locations, poor catchments, infrastructure issues like roads dug up, etc. In Mumbai and Pune, the predominant reason for closure is high rentals," Varghese said.
On the company's IPO plans, Varghese said, "it is on our radar but not at this juncture. We are definitely open to an IPO but it will happen when we are closer to profitability. We are not thinking about it now."
The company expects a revenue of Rs 1,450-1,500-crore this fiscal (FY 10). The company closed FY 09 at Rs 1,130-crore.
"We are targeting a growth of 25-30 per cent in FY 11," Varghese said.
