Heritage Foods targets 100 retail outlets

Lines up Rs 120 crore for the expansion of Fresh@.

Hyderabad-based Heritage Foods, which made its retail foray with Fresh@ in November 2006, is gearing up to launch 10 retail outlets every month in the cities of Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chennai.

The Rs 292-crore company, primarily engaged in marketing of dairy products in south India, has targeted to increase the number of Fresh@ outlets to 100 by 2007-08. It currently has 20 stores including 15 in Hyderabad, three in Bangalore and two in Chennai.

Heritage has lined up investments to the tune Rs 120 crore for expansion of its retail operations during this year, Heritage Retail vice-president, S Jagadish, said adding that the company would also be increasing its employee strength from the existing 550 to 3,000 during the current fiscal.

Of the proposed Rs 120-crore investment, he said about Rs 60 crore would be spent on expansion of front-end operations and Rs 40 crore would be utilised for back-end activities like setting up of warehouses. The remaining Rs 20 crore would be utilised for strengthening of the company's IT infrastructure.

According to Jagadish, Heritage had planned 45 Fresh@ stores by March 31, 2007, but could not achieve the target "because of a phenomenal rise in the price of real estate."

However, with the real estate prices stabilising from April end, the company has signed 20-25 properties in the last two months.

Apart from store expansion, Fresh@ would focus on free home delivery service, which would be an integral part of the brand identity, using multiple channels for ordering "� the Heritage milk agents, a dedicated call centre and an e portal.

For spreading its operations beyond south India, Heritage has appointed an agency to explore other parts of the country where Fresh@ stores could be set up.

"We are looking for a national footprint. In the next three to four months, we will take a call on which are the other markets we can enter into," Jagadish said.