Big Bazaar expands in South India

Future Group owned Big Bazaar intending to focus on increasing its expansion in community retailing plans to open two new outlets.

The company intends to bring the two centres by March 2011 covering the area of approximately 80,000 sq ft. These two centres will come up in  Hyderabad and Bangalore.

Presently, there are 11 Big Bazaar Family Centres across India. Of these, new centres at Malleswaram in Bangalore (February 2010) and Sealdah in Kolkata (March 2010), are spread between 60,000 to 80,000 sq ft, at an investment of Rs 2,000 per sq ft.

The Malleswaram centre has 65 varieties of pickles, 45 kinds of papads and about 50 varieties of rice. It has also roped-in a well-known local banana vendor as well as popular brands--Murugan butter and Gayatri Coffee while at Sealdah, it has the popular brands--KC Das and Aminia.

The company has also designed a novel business model to convert the existing Big Bazaars into Family Centres.

"The idea is to rope in those people or outlets to which people in the area are loyal," Biyani said.

Family Centre offers a wide range of products across categories including food and grocery, apparel, footwear, toys, luggage, kitchenware, bed and bath ware, home décor, furniture, electronics and fine gold jewellery.

The idea is to bring all the local needs under one shelter by introducing local brands too.