Nepal’s Chaudhary Group, with over 40 companies from FMCG, banking and automobiles to consumer durables, plans to foray into retail by opening a chain of supermarkets and hypermarkets in Nepal in the next 5 years under CG Retail through internal funding. Beyond Squarefeet, retail-realty advisory, has been appointed as the advisory body for the group for its retail venture.
Speaking on the development, Ashish Sharma, CEO, Chaudhary Group, said: “Our entry into retail is a forward integration of our various businesses. Since we already have the knowledge of the consumers through our FMCG business, we are sure that it will help us deliver the expectations of the consumer.”
Organized retail in Nepal is still at a nascent stage with very few players in the market and is about less than 1 percent of the retail trade.
Beyond Squarefeet will make the retail entry strategy for the group along with planning of store formats, layouts, designing of the supermarkets, creating of the merchandising mix, planning strategy and branding.
Susil S. Dungarwal, Chief Mall Mechanic, Beyond Squarefeet, said that the company’s earnings from India would be well utilized in setting up a retail chain in Nepal as most of the socio-economic trends are similar.
Chaudhary Group, a Nepalese company, has an investment of over US$250 mn. The organization has made substantial presence in South Asia’s food and beverages market and diversified into various sectors such as food and beverage, electronics and home appliances, beer, cigarette, financial services, infrastructure (power and water), hotels and real estate, automobile, health care and education.
-IndiaRetailing Bureau
