The Hindu Business Line : Aditya Birla Retail plans ‘More’ outlets

Chennai, Nov. 27 Aditya Birla Retail is all set to double its retail outlets to 600 before the end of this year. “As of now, we have 299 outlets. We are opening one in Coimbatore today, and one in Warangal (Andhra Pradesh) tomorrow. We want to double it by the end of 2007,” Mr Andrew Denby, CEO, Supermarkets, Aditya Birla Retail Ltd, told Business Line. The Aditya Birla Group forayed into the retail business in January this year by acquiring the Trinethra chain of stores which had 225 outlets, predominantly in the South, for Rs 150 crore.

As a result, the group has a strong presence in the South now. With the proposed stores coming up in cities, including the National Capital Region, Mumbai, Pune, Jaipur, and some in Gujarat, Punjab and West Bengal, it will have a national footprint in another one month.

After acquisition, the company started rebranding the stores as ‘More’. “So far, we have rebranded almost one-third of Trinethra outlets. We would have completed at least 50 per cent of them by December,” says Mr Denby.

The average size of More outlets is 3,200 sq. ft, and it sells 3,000-4,000 products in categories ranging from staple foods, groceries, fruits and vegetables. “Each of our stores registers an average 700 footfalls a day.”

Besides, the group is planning to open a hypermarket in Baroda — its second, after Mysore — under the same brand (More) in the first quarter of next year, with floor space of 70,000 sq. ft.

According to him, the company is on a hiring spree. It reckons it would need to double its headcount to 6,000 by December-end, to keep pace with its expansion plans.

It may also roll out new format stores and introduce more private label products in the months to come. However, Mr Denby said nothing has been finalised on that count.

Asked whether the group is planning to acquire any more store chains, he answered in the negative saying, “We now aim at organic growth.”