Bharti Wal-Mart, a joint venture between Bharti Enterprises and US-based retail giant Wal-Mart stores, on Friday said it will commence its wholesale cash and carry operations by early next year from the northern region.
Bharti Wal-Mart's plan to open its first cash-and-carry store in the country at Amritsar on Tuesday has been postponed because of law and order problem in Punjab following violence sparked by killing of a Dera leader in Austria. "Due to the situation in Punjab, Bharti Wal-Mart is postponing the launch of its cash-and-carry wholesale store 'Best Price Modern Wholesale'," the company said on Monday.
Telecom major Bharti and world's biggest retailer Wal-Mart Stores Inc on Monday signed an agreement to form a joint venture for their wholesale cash and carry business.
Bharti Wal-Mart Pvt Ltd, the joint venture between Bharti Enterprises and retail giant Wal-Mart, opened its first cash-and-carry (wholesale) store in India at Amritsar.
"We have examined the Bharti-Wal-Mart joint venture and everything is in conformity with the existing policy on FDI in retail," high-level sources in the commerce and industry ministry said.
Bharti Wal-Mart Pvt Ltd, the joint venture between Bharti Enterprises and retail giant Wal-Mart, opened its first cash-and-carry (wholesale) store in India at Amritsar in Punjab on Sunday.
Middle-class Indian consumers should, of course, sit back and watch the action on the shop floor.
Bharti Enterprises, which has tied-up with Wal-Mart, on Friday said discussions are on over business arrangement with the US firm for their retail venture.
In a letter dated November 30, the PMO asked the commerce ministry to prepare a detailed note on the venture, in the anticipation that it would come up for discussion in Parliament.
The joint-venture's first wholesale store is expected to be opened by the end of 2008, Wal-Mart India President (Operations) Raj Jain had said.
The Bharti Group will on Monday announce a tie-up with Walmart for its retail operations, under which the world's largest retailer would manage the back end operations.
Bharti Group's retail venture in partnership with the world's biggest retailer Wal-Mart is going to be a low-key affair with its launch planned in phases over a period of time.
Wal-Mart defers launch of its first Indian store
Having made public its tie-up for a retail venture, the Bharti-Wal-Mart combine is roping in leading realty majors like DLF, Emaar MGF, and Ansals for handling the massive real estate requirements of the project.
Reliance, Bharti's response to Ahmedabad's space crunch.
The Enforcement Directorate has been asked to investigate alleged violation of FDI regulations by e-commerce company Flipkart Online Services and cash & carry chain Bharti Walmart.
Global retail giant Walmart has got fair trade regulator CCI's green signal for purchase of Bharti group's almost 50 per cent stake in their Indian joint venture for wholesale stores business.
Retailers have learnt the costly lesson that stores must be opened where they can get a regular loyal customer base, and not necessarily in prominent locations which create hype and footfalls but no commensurate purchases.
"We are developing the cash and carry model with an overseas partner," Future Group's CEO Kishore Biyani told PTI here, without giving details.
When French Retailer Carrefour enters the Rs 1,200 crore (Rs 12 billion) cash and carry segment in 2009, it would face tough competition from established players such as Germany's Metro, Bharti-Wal Mart, Reliance, Pantaloon, Wadhawan Retail and others entrants like Tesco and Costco.
Despite the onslaught from big retail chains, small kirana shops could get a lifeline from the Indian Institute of Packaging.
Riding high on the retail boom in India, Bharti Retail on Wednesday opened its first store in Ludhiana.Meanwhile, the Bharti-WalMart joint venture is likely to kick off its cash and carry (wholesale) business in the third quarter of this year.
Reliance Retail, already creating ripples in the organised domestic retail market, is poised to acquire smaller rivals in order to take on serious competition from the likes of Bharti-Wal-Mart combine.
The way the story went, customers would get dramatically lower prices for everyday groceries (something that takes up 45 per cent of the household budget) and farmers would earn at least a third or more as big retailers began procuring from them directly. But none of this has really happened, and may not either.
GE Money India said on Monday it is talking to big retailers including Bharti-Wal-Mart and Reliance for offering credit programmes such as the private label credit card it has provided to Tata Group.
The investments include the supply chain, but exclude real estate component.
In October, media reports suggested that the World's largest retailer Wal-Mart made "suspicious payments" totalling millions of dollars to local officials in India.
Deciding to focus on the cash-and-carry segment in India, retail giant Wal-Mart plans to open 50 wholesale stores in the next four to five years to expand its footprint in the country.
The retailer has registered a new company called 'Wal-Mart India Private Ltd' in the country, according to the data available with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs.
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