The Hindu Business Line : ITC plans more Choupal Fresh stores

Plans ready
The company would open 140 stores in 54 towns in the next three-four years.
While some towns will have one Choupal Fresh outlet, others would have more than one.

A file picture of a customer at ITC's Choupal Sagar at Sehore near Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh.

Hyderabad , Jan. 17

ITC, which has launched its retail and wholesale vending of vegetables and fruits, has prepared a plan to expand its Choupal Fresh stores across the country.

The company would open 140 stores in 54 towns in the next three-four years, according to Mr S. Sivakumar, Chief Executive of ITC Agri-Business Division.

Currently, the company runs three stores in Chandigarh, Pune and Hyderabad with 11 different places feeding the stores.

Formats

The fourth store would come up in Kolkata. Unlike other major players, the ITC format consists of both the wholesale and retail formats. The stores are open between 4-7 a.m. for wholesale sales and then for retail sales.

"While some towns will have one Choupal Fresh outlet, others would have more than one," Mr Sivakumar told Business Line.

"All our effort for Choupal Fresh is backed up by the work we do on the farm front. The end-to-end effort includes focus on demos, crop calendar, enhancing farm productivity and cold-chain support wherever needed. Our focus is on an integrated approach," he said.

Feeders

As it expands to other cities, ITC, which pioneered in engaging with farmers directly by offering a host of services to them, would scale up its engagement with farmers and streamline the supply chain mechanism to make them feeders for the stores.While the feeder villages around the towns attend to the product requirements of the stores during the season, the company also developed some back-up feeders for the off-season requirements.

Choupal Sagars

The company also has plans to expand `Choupal Sagars', its rural retailing business. "We have 12 such stores in the three States of Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra. There are 11 more under construction in those States," he said.The company has already announced its plans to set up 40 more stores in this format in the next few months. The scope of these stores is bigger than hypermarkets. Farmers can sell their produce and also buy a wide variety of products.