Future Group's fruit, vegetable shop
Future Group's fruit, vegetable shop

 

New Delhi: Kishore Biyani-led Future Value Retail plans to open standalone ‘farm fresh’ stores selling only fruits and vegetables in neighbourhood locations on the lines of the Safal fruits-and-vegetables chain.

 

“Although we sell fruits and vegetables in Food Bazaar, the category is not as big as other categories. Besides revamping the existing farm fresh stores, we are looking to open dedicated stores for this category,” he said. The move is aimed at cornering maximum sales and increasing contribution of the category in Food Bazaar’s annual revenues to 10% in the next two years from 3% now, said Mr Radhakrishnan.


Mr Radhakrishnan said that fruits and vegetables is a profitable category and promises up to 10% profit margin after taking into account wastage and supply chain losses. Currently, the group sells fruits and vegetables at about 191 Food Bazaar outlets across the country. The size of Food Bazaar outlets ranges from 8,000 square feet to 15,000 square feet and the company is looking at dedicating an area of 1,000-2,000 square feet only for food and vegetables.

The new format is already in place in Kolkata, where it is sourcing 60% of the produce directly from farmers. Similar exercise will be followed in Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chennai, which is expected to get over by the March next year. Future Value Retail, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Pantaloon, currently operates Big Bazaar and Food Bazaar stores, among other formats, in over 70 cities across the country, covering an operational retail space of over seven million sq ft. The company is working on strengthening supply chain and increasing direct sourcing from farmers going ahead.

 

 
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