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Hyderabad: Bharti
Walmart, the joint venture between Bharti Enterprises and Walmart
Stores Inc, plans to open six more Best Price modern wholesale
stores in India during the current financial year.
The firm, which opened its 18th store in India here Wednesday,
also plans to open 10 stores every year.
Spread over 53,000 square feet, the Best Price store which has
come up at Sivarampally on Rajiv Gandhi International Airport
Road, is the first store in Hyderabad and the third in Andhra
Pradesh.
Bharti Walmart already has two stores in Andhra Pradesh, in
Vijayawada and Guntur.
Raj Jain, president, Walmart India and managing director and CEO,
Bharti Walmart India, told reporters that they planned to open two
more Best Price stores in Andhra Pradesh in the next six months
Each store comes up with an investment of Rs.35 crore to Rs.40
crore.
The company's investment in Andhra Pradesh has crossed $21 million
(about Rs.120 crore).
Jain said there they would not slow down opening Best Price stores
in view of their proposed foray into retail. "We will open 10
stores next year and another 10 stores in the coming year," he
added.
The Best Price store is a one-stop business-to-business store that
caters to restaurants, hotels, caterers, fruit and vegetable
resellers, kirana (grocery) stores, offices and institutions.
The store stocks over 5,000 items including a wide range of fresh,
frozen and chilled foods, fruits and vegetables, dry groceries,
personal and home care items, hotel and restaurant supplies,
apparel, office supplies and electronic goods.
The company, which has a customer base of six lakh in the country,
has so far signed up 60,000 customers in Hyderabad. "It is the
biggest customer drive we ever had in our history in India," he
said.
"Andhra Pradesh is a large and prosperous state, with a large
farming sector, both in terms of what comes out of land and from
the sea. It is also a big consumer market and one of the fastest
growing states in the country in last one or two decades," Jain
said
The wholesale store caters to three big customers - kirana stores,
institutions and hotels and restaurants and caterers.
He said the Best Price store in Hyderabad was the first store with
a complete private range. There are 400 products available under
this range.
The store offers products that are 15 to 30 percent cheaper than
branded goods, without compromising on quality. "We can do this
because we get the products right from the source and we have no
expense on advertisement, sales and marketing," Jain said.
The company is working with 6,500 farmers in various states,
procuring farm produce directly from them. It plans to accelerate
the programme and increase the number of farmers to 35,000 in
three years.
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