Bharti to open 70 stores

Bharti Enterprises has set a target to touch 150-store-mark by the end of this year by opening 70 new ones, including those run under a unit and the ones run through a joint venture with US's Wal-Mart Stores Inc. It has about 80 stores at present.

Bharti runs two cash-and-carry stores through its joint venture with Wal-Mart Stores, and these stores are also expected to go up to 10 by this year end.

A unit of Bharti Enterprises, Bharti Retail, also plans to increase the number of its mid-sized compact hypermarket stores, ‘Easyday Market’, to 12 from six, at present.