Pantaloon to open 75 Food Bazaars next year

Pantaloon Retail's food division is planning to increase the number of Food Bazaar outlets from 60 to 135 by December 2007.

"Besides metros, people in tier-II cities and towns are also ready for the modern food retailing formats. We are, therefore, gearing up to open 75 more Food Bazaars across the country by the end of next year. Our cut-in stores will continue to be a part of Big Bazaars and Centrals, and we intend to set up stand-alone stores in smaller cities like Visakhapatnam and Mangalore. The properties for our expansion plan have already been signed," Damodar Mall, president and chief executive officer (food business division) of Pantaloon Retail, said after the launch of the company's first stand-alone Food Bazaar in the city today.

The company already has two cut-in stores at Hyderabad Central and Big Bazaar, and is planning to have four more Food Bazaars in the city in the next two months.

Pantaloon is planning to open 4,000 stores across all its formats by 2010 including 1,000 in its food division. "We expect to achieve a turnover of Rs 4,000 crore from all our format stores this year with the Food Bazaar format accounting for 1/3 of our total revenues. Our ambition is to reach a turnover of Rs 30,000 crore by 2010," he said.