Videocon set to foray into cash & carry

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The VN Dhoot-promoted Videocon Group is venturing into the wholesale cash & carry business this fiscal. A separate division is planned to set up 60 Bolld Cash & Carry stores at an investment of Rs 2,000 crore over the next three years.

Sunil Mehta, currently joint president-sales & manufacturing at Videocon Industries, will be CEO of the new division. The group hopes the cash & carry business will contribute Rs 6,000 crore to overall sales turnover by 2013.

According to Mehta, “In the first phase, which is 2008, we will be investing Rs 400 crore to set up six stores in cities such as Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Jaipur and Delhi, each spread over an area of 1-1.50 lakh sq ft, displaying 17,000 stock keeping units. We are in the process of tying up with all major branded FMCG and durables companies, apart from the various companies and sectors we would cater to.”

The Videocon Group is setting up two new offices for its cash & carry division, at Andheri Kurla Road in Mumbai and Videocon Tower in New Delhi. While Mehta will be operating from the Videocon Tower office, the group is planning to rope in someone new from an FMCG company to handle the Mumbai operations. Details will be finalised in the next two weeks, Mehta said.

In the wholesale cash & carry business, Videocon’s new division will compete with Metro Cash & Carry and Reliance Industries, which are also planning separate forays into the business in 2009. As for the rationale behind the move, Mehta explained, “We aim to provide products through Bolld Cash & Carry at a value-for-money pricing strategy. Plans are on the anvil to rope in a sales force of 250 people for each store, for front-end and back-end operations.”