Spencer's Retail to buy Nature's Basket from Godrej Industries for $43 mn

This will give Spencer, a part of RP Sanjiv Goenka Group, access to western part of India.

India's Spencer's retail Ltd will buy upmarket grocery chain Nature's Basket from Godrej Industries for Rs 3 billion ($42.76 million), the company said on Friday.

Spencer's, a part of RP Sanjiv Goenka Group (RPG), runs its own grocery stores in parts of the country.

The deal will give Spencer's access to cities like Mumbai, Pune and Bengaluru through 36 stores of Nature's Basket, said Shashwat Goenka, who leads RPG's retail unit.

Nature's Basket competes with the likes of Future Retail Ltd owned Food Hall, as well as Alibaba Group backed online grocery company Bigbasket.

"Nature's Basket has a strong portfolio of private label brands which has huge traction with its consumers," Goenka said, adding that RPG would also benefit from the chain's online grocery business.

Spencer's, which reported its results separately, made a net profit of 18.3 million rupees for the quarter ended March 31.