FCH expects to sell 2 lakh Future Cards in Gujarat

The financial services arm of the Future Group, Future Capital Holdings Limited (FCH), expects to sell over two lakh of its soon-to-be-launched Future Card in Gujarat, considered to be one of the biggest markets.

The co-branded loyalty-cum-credit card will be marketed and distributed by ICICI Bank, apart from handling back end operations.

"According to a McKinsey report, India is projected to become the fifth largest consumer market in the world by 2025 and we have a lot to tap," said Pankaj Thapar, head (Investments and Acquisitions), Future Capital Holdings Limited. The company did a consumer durables loan business of Rs 1,000 crore by June, 2007.

A low consumer credit penetration in Indian households of just 10 per cent has led the diversified Future Group to commence distribution of several other financial products including life and non-life insurance products. FCH currently has asset under its advisory worth $1.1 billion.

On the retail front in Gujarat, the group's flagship company Pantaloons Retail (India) Ltd is expanding its hypermarket format Big Bazaar to other cities like Vadodara, Bharuch, Jamnagar, Mehsana, Vapi, Bhavnagar and a second store in Surat.

Across the country, the company is expanding from a current retail space of eight million sft to 15 million sft at an investment of Rs 2,000 per sft.

Talking about the expansion of various format stores, group chairman Kishore Biyani said while Big Bazaar stores would be expanded from the current 80 to 160 stores by the end of 2008, other formats like Home Town, E-Zone and Food Bazaar will be expanded from 5 to 10, 35 to 70 and 140 to 240 stores, respectively.