Wadhawan group plans to set up grocery chain

Wadhawan Food Retail plans to open 70 food and grocery outlets under the Spinach brand in Mumbai in the next one year.

Speaking at the launch of the first store in suburban Mumbai, Kapil Wadhawan, director, WFRL, said the company is planning to open 1,500 stores over the next six years at 93 centres, although the plans are subject to review at a later date.

These stores (mainly in supermarket format) will be rolled out in three sizes. Spinach Express of about 1,000 square feet, Spinach Local of 3,000 square feet and the larger 6,000 square feet Spinach Super.

Dippankar Halder, chief executive officer, WFRL, said, "The focus will be on residential areas where we intend to provide customers with a fair price store."

He said that the company will not opt for predatory pricing as followed by many other food retailers.

The initial investment has been pegged at Rs 75-100 crore (Rs 750 million-1 billion) through internal accruals. Wadhawan said that he expected the retail division to break even and be self-sustaining in three years.

Halder said, "Less than one per cent of the Indian food and grocery sector is organised, and we intend to make a difference to this."

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