The Hindu Business Line : Metro Cash & Carry plans more centres

EXPANDING HORIZONS: Mr Harsh Bahadur, Managing Director, and Mr Heinrich O.E. Birr, Vice-President, International Affairs of Metro Group AG, Germany, at the Metro Cash and Carry India hyper market which was opened at Moosapet in Hyderabad on Wednesday. — P.V. Sivakumar

Hyderabad , Nov. 29

Metro Cash & Carry India, which opened its third distribution centre in India here today, plans to set up distribution centres at all 35 cities that have population beyond one million.

"The immediate plan is to open centres in Mumbai and Kolkata by mid-2007. After that, we will look at cities such as Chennai, Pune, Ghaziabad and Gurgaon," said Mr Harsh Bahadur, Managing Director.

In Andhra Pradesh, the centres would come up in Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam and another centre in Hyderabad. It currently runs two centres in Bangalore.

Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, he said the centres would prove to be a boom to retailers, offering over 18,000 products needed for sales.

The Hyderabad centre, set up with an initial investment of Rs 67 crore at Moosapet, comprises a selling space of one-lakh sq ft. "Of this, 20,000 sq ft is temperature controlled space to handle perishable commodities like vegetables, fruits, fish and meat," he said.

Members

About 75,000 small and medium retailers, traders, hoteliers, caterers and other businesses had already become members of the company. Only those who were enrolled, or their representatives, could buy at the centre.

The centre was expected to generate revenues to the tune of Rs 220-300 crore a year.

Metro is the Indian arm of the Germany-based Metro Cash & Carry International GmbH. It has operations in 28 countries. About 78 per cent of the company's total turnover came from operations abroad.