Metro Cash & Carry looking at setting up stores in Tamil Nadu

German wholesale brand targets to increase number of stores to 50 across India

Metro Cash & Carry, a wholesale store chain major, has Chennai and Tamil Nadu in its radar to set up its shop in future. At present the company got 16 stores in India across nine states and has plans to expand it to 50 by 2020.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a press meet today, Vishal Seghal, head corporate relations, Metro Cash & Carry India Pvt Ltd said that it is looking at a proper location which meet its requirements.

"We need at least 2.5 to 3 acres of land near the city and there has been a difficulty in getting land suitable to our needs. But Tamil Nadu is a big market and we are looking at entering this market. We want to start in Tamil Nadu with a facility in Chennai," Seghal said.

Last year the company announced that it will increase the number of stores in India to 50 from the existing 16 by 2020. Works are in progress to achieve this and the company would soon announce some development on this, he added.

Metro Cash & Carry India, which started operations in India in the year 2003, opening its first wholesale distribution centre at Bengaluru. It currently has 16 operational wholesale centres including three in Bengaluru, two each in Hyderabad and Mumbai and one each in New Delhi, Kolkata, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Zirakpur, Amritsar, Vijayawada, Jaipur and Indore. The company has posted a turnover of 482 million Euro last year.

Almost 90% of the products are sourced from within the country, while some of the imports are made depending on the specific requirements of its clients, he said.

The company, which has its operations only into Business to Business segment of the wholesale business, has a customer base of small retailers, kirana stores, hotels, restaurants and caterers (HoReCa), corporates, small and medium enterprises, offices and self employed professionals. It currently offers close to 10,000 products including fruits & vegetables, general grocery,dairy, frozen & bakery products, fish & meet, confectionery, detergent & cleaning supplies, health & beauty products and media & electronics, household goods and apparel under one roof.

The company is represented in 29 countries with over 700 self-service wholesale stores and has a sales of around 32 billion Euro in 2012, says the company.