German wholesale retailer, Metro Cash & Carry, is planning to open four new stores in India by the end of 2012, of which two would come up at Zirakpur in Punjab and Indore in Madhya Pradesh.
"The average investment in our new wholesale distributions centres will be approximately Rs 70 crore (Rs 700 million) each," a company spokesperson told Business Standard, while declining to spell out the locations for the other two stores.
Metro Cash & Carry, a sales division of Metro Group, currently operates 11 wholesale distribution centres two each in Bangalore, Hyderabad and Mumbai, and one each in Kolkata, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Delhi and Jaipur.
Traditional Indian wholesale markets, while extremely efficient, find that they have to expand their procurement and
distribution models to accommodate the increased number of products that are in demand in the market at present.
The number of products consumed by the average Indian has multiplied several times over the years. This is because customers have a greater awareness of global market trends, and higher expectations in terms of quality, range and services, he said.
"Metro is able to offer an economical alternative that maintains a wide assortment of over 10,000 food and non-food products in a clean buying environment, all available under one roof, at low wholesale prices. This is steadily finding traction in the Indian market, where Metro Cash & Carry's wholesale operations serve professional customers (B2B) in India," he added.
The company achieved global sales of about 31 billion in 2011, the spokesperson said, adding they were not at liberty to disclose revenues for Metro Cash & Carry India.