Pantaloon Retail to spend Rs 400 cr on expansion

Pantaloon Retail (India), the country’s largest retailer, plans to spend close to Rs 400 crore on expansion of its various retail formats by June 2010, Kishore Biyani, managing director, told reporters on the sidelines of TiE Entrepreneurial Summit 2009 in Mumbai on Wednesday.

Biyani said the hive-off of value retail chains —- Big Bazaar and Food Bazaar —- into wholly owned subsidiary Future Value Retail will be completed by the month-end.

Consolidation of companies in financial and support services businesses will be completed in 4-6 months.

“We are trying to be a pure retail player, a pure financial company and a support services company,” Biyani said.

In a related development, the company is restricting the presence of its small-format grocery chain KB’s Fair Price (under Future Agrovet Ltd) to 3 cities —- Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore —- and utilising the potential of these markets. The existing KB’s Fair Price stores in Hyderabad and Ahmedabad have been shut down.

“Pantaloons for us is one of the best performing formats showing same-store-sales growth (SSS) in excess of 25%. We are looking at opening 10-12 Pantaloons stores in 2010,” Biyani said.

He, however, discarded all speculations of a joint venture with hypermarket chain Carrefour of France. “We are not looking at brands that people are talking about. I cannot comment on speculations,” he said.

On the current scenario in the organised retail industry, Biyani said 2009 was a year of new experiences. “It was a slap across our faces. Retailers learned that understanding the consumer and category, building scale was important. 2010 should certainly be a good year for retail,” he said.

Meanwhile, Future Group plans to set up Indian-style hotels, first of which will come up at Raipur  in the next six months, Biyani said.

“We will set up hotels in the Indian style where people can get indigenous food,” he said.