The Hindu Business Line : Woolworth plans 40 more joint venture outlets

In India, the partnership with Tata consists of selling 70 per cent of electronic goods such as computer, colour televisions and 30 per cent white goods such as washing machine and dish-washer.

G. Srinivasan

Sydney, Oct 13

The Australian-based Woolworth Ltd, which runs 23 retail stores in partnership with the Tata Group in India on consumer electronics and white goods in four States, plans to open 40 more outlets in Hyderabad and down South in the next one year.

Disclosing this to a group of journalists from India here, the company’s General Manager, Consumer Electronics, Ms Debra Singh said that in the meanwhile, the company is consolidating its position in the 90 Indian cities it is already operating under the banner Corma. The four States in which the retail stores operate include Maharasthra, Gujarat, Karnataka and Delhi.

“At this point of time, we could have established 35 stores and we have lost the challenge in relation to that target”, she said adding that one of the challenges was property acquisition and rental costs in major cities remain astronomical. Ms Singh said getting property in time for a big retail store demanding a space of 10,000-20,000 sq. feet was a tough challenge. She said the cluster approach by which 13 stores cluster around Bhiwandi with all the stores being serviced in one central location is a very much Australian model, avoiding the small and middle warehousing. This way it provides for efficiency for vendors for stocks coming in and to retail stores to ensure distribution in a seamless manner and this helps in fractionalisation of cost of operation immensely.

Unique model

She said that the joint venture Wooloworth Ltd entered into with Tata three years ago remains a unique model as the Australian company provides all the products to stores with Wooloworth “doing all the wholesale” and the Tatas providing with the task of developing a network of consumer electronic retail stores in India.

She said that the 460 stores the company operate in New Zealand and Australia procures consumer electronic goods at one centralised place and distribute to its outfits overseas to keep the cost of procurement price competitive.

Electronic goods

Ms Singh said that in India their partnership with Tata consists of selling 70 per cent of electronic goods such as computer, colour televisions and 30 per cent white goods such as washing machine and dish-washer. Ms. Singh said in India the Jughu stores sales has been consistently good and it has outsmarted similar shop sales in Australia, proving that India could be a destination for retail chains provided ground-level constraints get overcome in the coming years.

Ms Singh said octroi and complex web of Indian tax system need to be addressed fairly and retail provides a great opportunity to meet the aspirational demands of the rising younger population. She said her company is registered in Australian Stock exchanges and its market capitalisation is A$ 40 billion with the company operating more than 3,000 stores and employing 1.80 lakh across Austrlaia and New Zeland.

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