Aditya Birla group joins retail foray

New Delhi: The latest company to hop on to the retail bandwagon is the Aditya Vikram Birla Group.

Announcing the $24-billion diversified group’s entry into the domestic organised retail market, the group chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla said that the retail stores will be rolled out in the hyper market and super market formats.

While ruling out the franchisee model for the business, Birla said that the group would be setting up 1,000 super markets with an investment of up to Rs 9,000 crore over the next two years of about 10,000 sq ft each.

The group, which has interests in telecom, cement, textile and aluminium, had in January acquired control of the Trinethra supermarket chain in its run up to the retail foray.

But the company is not keen on tying up with any other joint venture partner like Reliance.

While telecom giant Bharti has tied up with Wal-Mart for its retail venture, Reliance Industries has stepped into the business on its own.

Its first retail outlet will be unveiled in Pune this month. The stores will be called Aditya Birla Retail.