Carrefour's first wholesale store in India in 2 mths

Carrefour, the second-largest retail chain in the world after Walmart, plans to open its first wholesale cash-and-carry store in the country at Seelampur in Delhi in the next two to three months.

“We have already started receiving very good response from the supplier side,” said Jean Noel Bironneau, general manager, Carrefour India. It will be a 55,000-sq ft store and source 90 per cent of its products within the country.

When asked about future expansion plans, Bironneau said: “We are working out plans to open a second store very soon, but we cannot give a definite figure on the number of wholesale cash-and-carry stores we are looking at. We want to take it one at a time and will provide products at the best price to suppliers.”

India allows 100 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) in the wholesale cash-and-carry trade, where the foreign company can only supply goods to other retailers, not market these directly.

On Carrefour’s reported plan to enter the hypermarket business through a franchise model, the company said it was open to the concept and eyeing the right partner.

“There has been a lot of speculation in the media from the last couple of days that we have tied up with a partner for the hypermarket business. Nothing has been finalised. We are definitely open to the franchise model to enter the hypermarket business in India,” said Bironneau.

The France-based company today also launched a greenhouse nursery project at Palla village in the northern extremity of Delhi. This initiative is planned to help farmers improve their crop yield.

At present, Carrefour exports textiles and fresh produce worth $170 million (Rs 765 crore) in a year from India to Europe and other Asian countries.

“The potential India has is immense and the organised sector comprises only five to six per cent. With the FDI inflow in the cash-and-carry business, this number will increase significantly. We expect the export figures from India to go up substantially in the coming years,” said Bironneau.