Wadhawan Food plans expansion

Wadhawan Food Retail (WFRL), the food retail company launched early this year by the promoters of Dewan Housing Finance Corporation, is likely to rope in a private equity (PE) company to fund its proposed expansion plan.

The company, which operates 10 stores in Mumbai under the Spinach brand, has plans to open 60 food and grocery outlets in Mumbai and Pune by the end of this year and to expand further to the Eastern and Northtern states in another two years.

The private equity funding would be required for the second phase of expansion proposed by 2007-08 and the company will also look at the possibilities of taping the capital market for the next phase of expansion to reach the number of retail outlets to 1,500 covering 93 centres in the country by the year 2011, said Dippankar Halder, chief executive officer, WFRL.

WFRL launched its first store in Mumbai in Febraury this year. These stores, which are mainly in supermarket format, will be rolled out in three sizes. Spinach Express of about 1,000 square feet, Spinach Local of 3,000 square feet and Spinach Super of 6,000 square feet.

"Our focus will be on residential areas where we intend to provide customers with a fair price store, and will not opt for predatory pricing as followed by many other food retailers," Dipankar said.

In the initial expansion process, the company expects to invest about Rs 100 crore and the venture is expected to be self-sustaining in three years.