The Hindu Business Line : Mahindra joins the retail bandwagon

Mumbai, Oct. 10 The Mahindra Group is the latest entrant to retail sector. Mahindra Intertrade, a fully owned subsidiary of Mahindra and Mahindra, said it would be entering the organised retail business.

The retail foray of the Rs 18,000-crore group would be through the brand name “Mahindra Retail”.

Mr Raghunath Murti, Executive Vice-Chairman, Mahindra Intertrade, said, “The group believes that this is the opportune time to enter and extend its distribution business into direct retailing, when the organised retail market is expanding in India. As such, it is a natural extension of the group’s existing business,” he said.

Mahindra Intertrade currently undertakes imports, exports, domestic trading, marketing and distribution activities. Its product portfolio includes steel and engineering products and commodities.

Under marketing services, it focuses on the kids’ segment and has tied up with Walt Disney, Aqua, Mattel and Lego to distribute kids’ toys, apparels, accessories, dinnerware, back-to-school items, gifts and novelties in India.

A recruitment ad appearing in newspapers stated that Mahindra Retail would roll-out a chain of multi-format lifestyle stores across the country within the next year. It added that the company would operate in the premium lifestyle segment selling international and private labels.

The company is funding the venture at present, but Mr Murti was reported as saying that the group might consider taking strategic partners on board at a later date.

Protesting entry

Meanwhile, a large number of wholesalers, retailers and vendors (about 15,000 according to police sources) gathered at Mumbai to protest the entry of big corporate houses in retail.

Reliance Industries, Wal-Mart, Carrefour and Metro AG retailers came under protestors’ wrath. Whether Mahindra has similar expansion plans is not clear, as the company spokesperson said, “We are at a very nascent stage of planning various modalities and still hiring. At this stage, we cannot disclose further details.”