The Hindu Business Line : Pantaloon Retail’s arm ties up with Dubai’s Aramex

Mumbai, June 17 In a tie-up that could be the first between an Indian e-commerce company and a global logistics major, FutureBazaar.com, a subsidiary of Pantaloon Retail, has partnered with the Dubai-based logistics service provider Aramex to open a 90,000 sq ft warehouse in Mumbai. Pantaloon Retail is part of the Kishore Biyani-owned Future Group.

“This is part of our Rs 100-crore expansion plan. About 66,000 sq ft is earmarked for Futurebazaar,” Mr Sankarson Banerjee, CEO, Futurebazaar.com. The facility at Bhiwandi, near Mumbai, is expected to be operational by September 1.

In addition, Aramex will handle the entire supply and delivery of the 1,000-odd orders that Futurebazaar gets each day.

Mr Percy Avari, Country Manager India – Aramex, said the company delivers to over 12,000 pin codes in India across 640 locations. The automated warehouse would be fully equipped to handle tens of thousands of shipments, including packaging.

Inventory

While electronic gadgets such as mobile phones and i-Pods are generally sourced at near zero inventory levels to avoid being outdated, kitchen items and the like command a 10-15 day inventory.

Apparels holdings are the highest at 45 days due to the designs and pattern changes.

Aramex will provide end-to-end logistics solution that is activated the moment the order is generated. The services include packing and forwarding to doorstep delivery. Pick up of returns, which account for a negligible percentage, too, will be taken care of. Service charges will be Rs 6 to Rs 70 a package.

Futurebazaar is also sprucing up its electronic platform, which currently has about 1.5 lakh customers and a sale of Rs 70-75 crore this year — the first year of operation. “In three years, we expect the customer base to touch 36 lakh and sales to cross Rs 1,000 crore,” said Mr Banerjee.

Interestingly, the online shopping facility appears an independent vertical which has no impact on the group’s Big Bazaar.

A sizeable portion of the sale has come from metro suburbs and non-metros. Futurebazaar has 54 customers in the Andamans.

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