Top management of the Tata Group have drawn up its final blueprint for foray into the hypermarket and supermarket segments in partnership with the Australia-based Woolworths Group, under its wholly owned subsidiary Infiniti Retail.
According to sources in the group, the blueprint reveals not very large plans initially, unlike that of other domestic corporate groups, like the Aditya Birla Retail, Reliance Retail and Bharti Retail.
However, the top-level management have been asked to scale up the plans and increase the targets as soon as possible.
?The blueprint which has penned down the number of stores and revenue targets for the retail venture, clearly focuses on first getting the business model right and only later scaling up the operations,? a source told FE.
The group is expected to shortly file before the government for regulatory approvals.
Trent, another group company of the Tata Group is already operating the hypermarket segment with ?Star Bazaar India? and it also had plans of ramping up the number of stores.
However, it seems more likely that the hypermarket business will be altogether shifted to Infiniti Retail, which has been identified to spearhead the retail industry for the country’s second largest corporate house.
Currently, Tata?s in a joint venture with Woolworths are operating six Croma stores in the country, ranging 15,000 to 22,000 square feet each involving an investment of Rs 400 crore.
The hypermarket and supermarket plans though are expected to be bigger than the consumer durables venture.
Infiniti Retail was also reported to be in talks with foreign retailers for operating other retail formats. It is believed to be in active talks with JC Penny for the apparel segment.
An e-mail questionnaire sent to the company’s spokesperson remained unanswered.
