The country?s biggest private sector steel producer, JSW Steel, is going deeper into the rural market with its retail plans. The company, which is the second steel firm in India after Essar to set up organised steel shops, is planning to set up centres across talukas to serve the rural market more effectively.
The company said it wants to be ready with a solid base to serve the demand coming from the rural sector in the next few years, which will surpass the urban demand.
?We are going granular. Earlier we were focussing on districts and now we will set up shops to serve the talukas,? said Jayant Acharya, director ? marketing, JSW Steel.
He said the company will either open JSW Shoppe, its organised retail brand, or a smaller format of Shoppe, which will cater to the demand emerging from 3,500-5,000 talukas out of the 7,000 talukas India has. The company wants to achieve this in the next 3-5 years.
He clarified that this will not mean opening up as many Shoppes but different formats of retail centres that can serve two or three talukas. The company was focussed at district level and has covered 175 of them out of the 600-odd districts in India. In all, JSW has over 400 organised retail outlets in the country.
