Bharti Wal-Mart, the joint venture between Bharti Enterprises and Wal-Mart Stores Inc, has announced opening of membership registration for its self-service cash-and-carry stores.
Scheduled to open in Punjab in 2009, the Bharti Wal-Mart cash-and-carry stores will offer services across 6,000 to 10,000 products including food and non-food items exclusively to business owners including traders, restaurant owners, hoteliers, caterers, fruit and vegetable resellers, kiranas, offices and institutions at fixed and fair prices, said a company press release.
Raj Jain, MD and CEO, Bharti Wal-Mart Pvt Ltd, said, “When we announced the JV in August last year, we gave ourselves a window of 18-24 months to launch our first wholesale cash-and-carry store. We are firmly on track and we have begun registration of membership in Punjab in advance to enable us to better forecast and serve the needs of our commercial customers.”
“The assortment, service and store layout of our wholesale stores will be customised to the specific needs of commercial customers who can walk in to the store and source high quality products in the quantities they need and at the time they require, all under one roof,” added Jain.
The Bharti Wal-Mart JV has already opened a distribution centre near Chandigarh and more such centres will be operational soon within a distance of 100-150 kilometers of the Chandigarh centre. The JV is expected to open 10 to 15 wholesale cash-and-carry centres and employ approximately 5,000 people over the next seven years, added the release.
—IndiaRetailing Bureau
