Aditya Birla to launch 'More' in retail

New Delhi: The USD 25 billion Aditya Birla Group has 'More' to show off in the retail space. Quite literally that is. The new Birla brand promises more quality and convenience and even a store by that name. It is Aditya Birla Group's offering in the organised retail landscape. The Birlas expect to roll out 15 stores in Pune next month.

Hypermarket is the other format the group plans to enter. And for this retail foray, the group plans an investment of Rs 7,000-8,000 crore. However, the unlisted entity, Aditya Birla Retail will tap debt and equity in due course of time.

Kumar Mangalam Birla, Chairman, AV Birla Group, said, “We have made a commitment to our shareholders that each company will stick to its own core business; therefore, the idea of doing it altogether with resources pulled from the different public listed companies is not something that is in keeping with the commitment.”

‘More’ is being positioned as a neighbourhood supermarket, but unlike Pantaloon and Reliance, it is keeping away from being a price warrior. One can expect the usual set of private labels, not only in staples, but also categories like home and personal care. The group is busy tying up with vendors and is hoping to leverage the group's presence for that. By next year, 5,000-10,000 employees will come on board Birla Retail. The company refused to share details on its real estate bank which is the biggest challenge in retail today.

“We are obviously looking at renting and leasing to the extent we can, and where we can’t, we are looking at buying real estate. We will consider it and if it requires financing, we will look at innovative ways of doing it,” Sumant Sinha, CEO, Aditya Birla Retail, told moneycontrol.com.

Meanwhile, foreign alliances have been clearly ruled out. Birla's domestic acquisition, retail chain Trinethra with 500,000 sq feet of space and 170 stores has given it a presence in South India. And Trinethra's hypermarket in Mysore, which is to be rebranded as More, is now a learning ground for Birla's hypermarket rollout.

With inputs from moneycontrol.com