Aditya Birla Retail is looking to increase its total number of supermarkets in the country to 500 by March, Sumant Sinha, CEO, Aditya Birla Retail said. "From the current 350 we will be scaling up our supermarkets to 500 by March 2008," he said, while announcing the re-branding of Fabmall grocery supermarkets to 'more'.
Aditya Birla Retail on Thursday said its sales, even in Pune, have not been impacted by the spreading disease swine flu.
Last year, Trent had entered into a tie-up with The Xander Group wherein Xander was to invest in malls along with local developers and Trent was to be the anchor tenant. Currently, three-to-four such malls are being developed in cities such as Surat and Ahmedabad.
Aditya Birla Retail Limited (ABRL), the retail arm of the Aditya Birla Group, would be investing Rs 8,000 to Rs 10,000 crore (Rs 80-100 billion) in expanding its operations across the country over a period of five years.
The Aditya Birla Group mayrestructure plan to bring all its retail verticals under Pantaloon Fashion & Retail.
Amazon has also signed a term sheet with Kishore Biyani-led Future group to invest $600 million to $700 million for a 12 to 15 per cent stake in the retail giant, it is learnt.
By his own admission, the last 30 months have been one of the toughest in Thomas Varghese's 29-year career. The 50-year-old chief executive of Aditya Birla Retail, however, quickly adds that they have been 'very interesting and challenging too'.
The retailer, which runs a supermarket chain under the More brand, is targeting annual sales of $4.5 billion (Rs 22,000 crore or Rs 220 billion) by March 2014 from Rs 1,200 crore (Rs 12 billion) in the current financial year. The retailer clocked sales of Rs 500 in the previous year. In 2007, the company had talked about a Rs 9,000 crore (Rs 90 billion) investment plan.
'Unlike Big Bazaar, where the promoter calls the shot, in ABRL, professionals take decisions. So, every new CEO leads to a change in strategy, which confuses vendors and the team.'
Aditya Birla Nuvo plans to extend its footprint in apparel retailing through two subsidiaries for mens exclusive lifestyle and Peter England family stores. Madura Garments, the company's branded apparel division, crossed a turnover of Rs 1,000 crore (Rs 10 billion) in FY08.
Diversified conglomerate Aditya Birla Nuvo will acquire 56 per cent stake in retail broking firm Apollo Sindhoori Capital Investments for a consideration of Rs 198.8 crore (Rs 1.988 billion), a move that will strengthen the financial services segment of the group.
Labelled 'More', first store expected in Pune in June.
Sources said the company would rope in private equity players in the next round of financing within a year. After reaching a particular scale, the company would also come out with an initial public offer, they added.
Telecoms investor Aditya Birla Nuvo Ltd and retailer Future Group were among the first big names to apply for licenses to run so-called payments banks
The acquisition of Trinethra Super Retail would put the Aditya Birla group ahead of competition, including Reliance, analysts tracking the development said.
Aditya Birla Group has announced its foray into the branded jewellery space with an investment of around Rs 5,000 crore and will battle it out with Titan's Tanishq and Reliance Industries- Reliance Jewel. The business will be housed in a new venture, "Novel Jewel", and will open large-format exclusive stores across the country with its in-house jewellery brands, the company said in its release. "The new venture will seek to transform customer experience by creating an aspirational national brand with unique designs and a strong regional flavour.
Sources close to the development said the group will shortly take a decision on the business, which has seen interest from large houses like the Tatas and the Ambanis.
'We want to play the value game for our consumers, which is health and retail will grow faster for us than the group.'
In a major expansion into sportswear and lifestyle wear segment, the Kumar Mangalam Birla-led Aditya Birla Fashion & Retail has signed a long-term licensing agreement with Authentic Brand Group of New York, which has the marketing and branding rights of Reebok, to run the operations of the global sportswear, athletic and lifestyle major in the country and ASEAN markets. The new agreement between the largest domestic multi-brand fashion retailer and Authentic Brand is an extension of their existing relationship as ABFRL already markets and sells some ABG brands like Forever 21. The agreement follows the global transfer of ownership of the Reebok brand from Adidas to ABG, which is expected to close in the first quarter of 2022.
The company is also looking at recruiting employees from outside India, especially for services and expertise that people in India lack.
In December, Aryaman Birla made a decision that would surprise many: he announced an 'indefinite sabbatical' from cricket.
The stock of Aditya Birla Fashion Retail is down 10 per cent from its February high. Even as the revenue performance of the apparel retail major in the October-December quarter's for the 2022-23 financial year (Q3FY23) was better than expected, the company saw brokerage downgrades, given the weak operating performance and the pressure on margins. This the second consecutive quarter of margin miss despite strong traction on the sales front.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday announced an increase in the Securities Transaction Tax (STT) on Futures and Options trade with a view to discouraging small investors from speculative trading in derivatives, which led to a sharp decline in the stock market.
2025 marked a shift in investor preference when it comes to MF schemes.
Chef Ranveer Brar walked as showstopper for Tarun Tahiliani's Tasva collection at the FDCI x Lakme Fashion Week 2025 in Delhi.
AV Birla Group chairman, Kumar Mangalam Birla and the chief executive officer of Aditya Birla Retail, Sumant Sinha bare the details, in this open-ended conversation, about their plans for Aditya Birla Retail.
The Aditya Birla Group, which rolled out its retail chain More recently, is studying the possibilities of creating linkages between its corporate social responsibility projects in the farm sector with the retail business of sourcing farm produce.
'The outlook for the next Samvat is more constructive, as many of the earlier drags are gradually becoming supports.'
The strong domestic flow offset selling by foreign portfolio investors who pulled out $23.3 billion (Rs 2.03 trillion) from domestic equity markets in CY25.
Like other food and grocery chains, Birla Retail is aggressively pushing its private labels and large packs to woo customers. Besides offering value, private labels push retailers' margins.
Sumant Sinha, CEO, Aditya Birla Retail, says that Trinethra's doing well, but he's worried about high real estate prices.
On the heels of Reliance Industries foraying into the lucrative retail business, Birla Group too contemplates rolling out its organised retail initiative.
The latest trigger has been Future group's buyout talk with the retail unit of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu's family-owned Heritage Foods
Some of the domestic biggies like Future Group, Reliance Retail and Aditya Birla Retail, while welcoming the government's move to allow 51 per cent FDI in multi-brand retail and completely open single-brand retail, said it will take time for foreign rivals to make presence felt on their own in the Indian retail landscape.
Competition from kirana stores, low margins and property and supply chain issues delay break-even.
With confidence creeping back into the market place and rentals down up to 50 per cent, large retailers are back to drawing up aggressive growth plans. In the next one year, Aditya Birla Retail, Bharti Enterprises, Reliance Retail, Trent, Mahindra Retail and others hope to open new stores spread over five million square feet.
While some like RPG's Spencer's and Wadhawan group's Spinach say it will encourage them to invest more in cold chains, others such as Aditya Birla Retail and Future Group said the announcement has come too late and helps fresh produce and chilled product suppliers more than retailers.
Retail players are planning to expand but with caution. It seems the slowdown of 2008-09 is still weighing on their minds.
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