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Mumbai: Pantaloon Retail India (PRIL) is planning to invest about Rs 350 crore over the next one year to expand its value hypermarket chain Big Bazaar.
The group is planning to set up 50 new Big Bazaar srores and aims at growing its retail space by 35 per cent, from 5 million sq ft right now. The group would also allocate special focus on fashion and foods segments through setting up exclusive outlets for these categories.
At present, PRIL commands 5 million sq ft of retail space for its Big Bazaar chain in India.
Sadashiv Nayak, president of Big Bazaar, said, “The challenge was to reach 100 stores in seven years. Having done that, we are targeting a 35 per cent growth in retail space every year.”
Nayak added, “We are also focusing on automation of processes so that transaction speed can be increased by 30 per cent. Already, we have brought down supply chain to two levels before stock hits the store, from five-level structure earlier.”
Currently, Big Bazaar contributes close to 60 per cent to Future Group’s turnover. Big Bazaar plans to focus on fashion and foods categories going forward and earn over 30-35 per cent of its revenues from each of these categories.
Nayak further added, “We intend to come up with standalone stores which will sell differentiated food products, like local cuisine, staples and imported products and will be quite different from our existing food and grocery format Food Bazaar. We will roll out such sections in some of our Big Bazaar stores and then eventually launch standalone outlets.”
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