The Hindu Business Line : Retail major Apna Bazaar to focus on building alliances

APNA Bazaar plans to achieve its natural high by establishing strategic alliances, and consolidating its operations, said Mr Mahesh Kambli after being appointed as the chief executive officer of the co-operative retail chain today.

"We would want to sustain our current growth, and concentrate more in areas of training our staff and building alliances with like-minded partners," Mr Kambli told Business Line.

The retail major is working towards partnering with Japanese Consumer Co-operative Union (JCCU) in areas of training the staff force, visual merchandising and setting up a co-operative food brand.

"These alliance will be based on exchanging strengths in areas of training, visual merchandising and developing co-op brands," said Mr Kambli. The training currently is imparted through in-house facilities and affiliations with Asoka Mehta Institute of Management and Research.

Apna Bazaar is also foraying into co-branding exercises to offer value to its consumers. While the chain will soon roll out `Apna Met Life policy' in association with MetLife Insurance, it has signed up a memorandum of understanding with SBI cards to issue co-branded credit cards.

"We had tied up with Met Life in August, and are selling around 50-60 policies a month. These associations with Met and SBI are targeted at building value for our existing set of customers," Mr Kambli added.

The consumer co-operative is also automating its back-end operations with specific emphasis in areas of inventory management. The operations have already taken off in two of its outlets. It will soon be extended to other outlets.

"Integrating the back-end operations will run in tandem with the training programmes of our staff members," Mr Kambli said.

The retail chain has also marked fresh food and vegetables segment as the focus area to sustain its growth. They are currently available at four stores, and will extend it to other outlets soon.

"The segment does business of around Rs 15 lakh per month, and we hope to touch Rs 50 lakh per month by the end of this year," Mr Kambli added.

The retail chain currently has around 80 outlets; of which 46 are company owned and the rest are franchisees. The network includes seven department stores, six supermarkets, twenty six food stores and five specialty chemist stores.

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