Pantaloon Retail to open 25-30 stores by Dec '09

Kishore Biyani-promoted Future Group retail subsidiary Pantaloon Retail would be opening 25-30 additional stores of the company's hypermarket chain Big Bazaar and supermarket chain Food Bazaar by December 2009.

"We are planning to open 25-30 more Big Bazaar and Food Bazaar outlets by December 2009. It will add to another 10-12 lakh sq ft of retail space and we would be investing around Rs 1,000 per sq ft of setting up the new stores," Food Bazaar CEO Sadashiv Nayak told reporters on the sidelines of Food Forum 2009 here today.

He said the company is focusing on the eight major cities in India, including the four metros, besides Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad for expanding the two chains.

"Besides the big cities, we also have strong markets in places like Guwahati, Ranchi and Nagpur. Our target is to achieve double digit growth in the next fiscal also," Nayak said.

There are currently 149 Big Bazaar and 109 Food Bazaar stores across the country.

Pantaloon Retail is targeting a growth of 30-35 per cent in the value retail segment by end of its current fiscal year in June 2009, he added.

The company is also hiring more people, Nayak said, without giving exact figures.