Future Group eyes 30% sales growth in FY09

Kishore Biyani's Future Group is expecting nearly 30 per cent growth in its revenue numbers in FY09, sources said. The company is expecting this growth to come from value formats such as Big Bazaar, Food Bazaar and other chains which are expected to buck the downturn, sources said.

When contacted, Future Group Chief Executive Kishore Biyani said he is expecting good growth in revenue numbers in the current fiscal, but did not elaborate further. In FY08, the group's flagship company Pantaloon Retail posted revenues of Rs 5,840 crore.

After registering a fall in same store growth numbers in December, Pantaloon Retail has posted positive numbers in January and February this year. Pantaloon’s February sales in the value retailing segment grew by 5.32 per cent and by 4.44 per cent in the lifestyle segment. Total sales for the month rose to Rs 418.71 crore.

Earlier, Biyani had told Business Standard that his group may miss its three-year revenue target of Rs 30,000 crore by at least six months due to the poor economic conditions and falling sales and will fall short by at least 1 million square feet of its target to add 4 million square feet of retail space by the end of this financial year.

Biyani, who was targeting a retail space of 30 million square feet by financial year 2011, now expects to have the space by FY13. According to sources, the company has almost halved its expansion plans for FY09 and FY10 at 2.5 million square feet a year from the earlier projection of 4 million square feet a year.

On Wednesday, the company's stock closed at Rs 137.50, over 2 per cent higher than Tuesday's close. Analysts said this was due to reports that Pantaloon plans to hive off Big Bazaar and Food Bazaar into separate company as Future Value Retail and form a joint venture with a foreign retailer.