Kumar Mangalam Birla?s pan-Indian retail chain, More, is recruiting in Kolkata even as Mukesh Ambani?s Reliance Retail, foiled in its retail plans by political opposition, has started sending its people out on deputation to other locations and companies.
A recruitment agency hired the Aditya Vikram Birla group has completed the first phase of interviews here, an industry source said. The group has shown interest in opening shops in the state.
However, the spokesperson of the Mumbai-based AV Birla group, when contacted, declined to comment on the issue.
Kumar Mangalam?s More plans 1,000 supermarkets in different states, and is already running 50,000sqft retail space that it acquired by buying south-based Trinethra Super Retail.
Meanwhile, Mukesh Ambani?s Reliance Retail has started sending out people to other centres on deputation. There are at least 800 on the payroll of the company?s retail venture. Some of them had come from other group companies like Reliance Seva or Reliance Petroleum on deputation.
??Some of them have already been sent to different states, and some would shifted after the festive season is over,?? a company sources said.
While the CPI(M) is all for players like Reliance, some smaller partners in the Left Front like the Forward Bloc had been opposing it.
After some outlets-in-the-making were vandalised last month, Reliance stopped its rollout in the state and sacked at least 400 people. Not on the payroll of Reliance, they were mostly floor assistants employed by different agencies.
Company sources said it is looking forward to the panchayat elections in West Bengal in May next year to take a final call on its venture in the state.
Meanwhile, it is closely watching the political developments in the state impacting retail business in the state.