Domestic retailers not worried about foreign competition

Foreign direct investments or not, homegrown retailers are convinced that their business will go on as usual, confident that global players will find it tough to catch up with them.

Some of the domestic biggies like Future Group, Reliance Retail and Aditya Birla Retail, while welcoming the government's move to allow 51 per cent FDI in multi-brand retail and completely open single-brand retail, said it will take time for foreign rivals to make presence felt on their own in the Indian retail landscape.

"In case of multi-brand, we have learnt a lot in the last five years and are very confident of continuing on our own without partnering a foreign player," Reliance retail president (Lifestyle) Bijou Kurien told PTI.

On the impact of the government's decision on India's retail sector, he said: "Nothing will change overnight. It will require a lot of time and effort for foreign retailers to set up strong base here."

Undeterred by the prospect of competition from foreign retailers, Future Group CEO Kishore Biyani told ET Now:

"We are well placed. Competition (foreign retailers) should we worried about us rather than we worrying about competition."

He said the Future Group has the first mover advantage.

"We are reasonably ahead in the race. Even if the sector is opened to FDI, it will be a slow start for anybody who comes in now as it is very difficult for anybody to grow organically," Biyani said.

Similarly, Aditya Birla Retail Ltd chief executive officer Thomas Varghese said: "We are not discussing with any foreign retailer or any kind of partnership. We will take it as it comes."

Reliance Retail, a part of Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Ltd, currently operates over 1,000 retail outlets in about 20 categories including food grocery, apparel, jewellery, electronics, footwear, electronics and others.

The company that has partnerships with a host of international single brands, also operates supermarkets and hypermarkets.

It plans to operate 4,000 stores by 2015.

Future Group, on the other hand has presence in 85 cities and 60 rural locations across the country with cover around 15 million square feet of retail space.

The stores attract around 220 million customers each year, according to the company's website.

Aditya Birla Retail plans to invest about Rs 1,500 crore (Rs 15 billion) in the next five years as it looks to expand its hypermarket and supermarket stores under More brand.

Currently the company has 12 hypermarkets and 590 supermarkets.

As per Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry estimates, the Indian retail sector is currently pegged at around $600 billion, with modern retail accounting for about 5 per cent.