Hyderabad is in for more retail action. The Future Group’s Food Bazaar has tied up with ITC Choupal Fresh to sell fruits and vegetables in the twin cities. It plans to replicate the model in the other cities if the experiment is successful, said Food Bazaar CEO Sadashiv.
Choupal Fresh is ITC’s food retail chain and operates as wholesale-cum-retail stores. It is equipped with warehousing and cold chain facilities to stock fresh horticulture products that are directly sourced from farmers.
The retail chain leverages on the extensive backward linkages with farmers and supply chain efficiencies. Food Bazaar is expected to take advantage of the infrastructure by partnering with ITC’s Choupal Fresh.
“We have tied up with local dealers for the supply of fruits and vegetables . These dealers can now tie up with ITC Choupal Fresh to make their produce available at the Food Bazaar stores,” he said.
Besides such tie-ups , the company is also planning to invest around Rs 200 crore to expand its reach by doubling the number of stores by July next year with a host of new product offerings . Food Bazaar has around 90 stores now and is targeting 180 in seven top cities.
The company has both standalone stores as well as in-house stores in Big Bazaar and it plans to continue the same format for the upcoming ones as well. “We also plan to have popular food from east, west, north and south India in all the Food Bazaar outlets. Initially, it will be introduced in tier-I and tier-II cities only and eventually to all the other outlets in the country,” said Mr Sadashiv.
