The Hindu Business Line : Aditya Birla Retail opening 15 stores in AP

Visakhapatnam, Nov. 2 Aditya Birla Retail Ltd is launching 15 supermarkets here on Saturday and is planning to open roughly 300 stores under the brand name ‘More’ in Andhra Pradesh by the end of the financial year, according to Mr Shiv Murti, Chief Operating Officer.

At a press meet here on Friday, he said the company had taken over Trinethra chain of supermarkets in January this year and “15 of those stores have been refurbished and are being relaunched on Saturday.” Further, he said, 35 more stores would be opened here by the end of the financial year.

Earlier, he said, nine stores had been relaunched in Vijayawada. “In all, we are planning to set up 150 stores or so in the coastal regions and parts of Rayalaseema and 150 more in the rest of the State by the end of the financial year,” he said. Depending on the location and size, the company is investing Rs 40 lakh to Rs 90 lakh on each store. The company is also setting up a series of hyper markets, beginning with Mysore.

Mr Murti said the stores had been designed by Fitch, the international design firm. The stores would offer a wide range of product categories including fruits and vegetables, staples, personal care products, general merchandise and dairy products.

He said the company had tied up with farmers and set up collection centres here and at other important places to bring in fresh produce.

In response to a question Mr Murti said that the company wanted to invest Rs 15,000 crore in phases in the retail business and so far it had invested Rs 3,000 crore or so.

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