German retail giant Metro Cash & Carry, which operates 20 wholesale outlets in 13 cities across nine States in India, will open its ‘model store’ with a new design layout in its home base, Bengaluru, on June 23 to coincide with its 13th anniversary celebrations.

In a first for the company, the model store will have separate sections for baby products, organic products, seasonal offers, etc. It will be replicated in all the new stores, and the existing stores will be redone in phases, said the company. It aims to open 50 outlets in the country by 2020.

Set up at an investment of ₹50 crore, the model store, spanning 55,000 sq ft, is Metro’s fifth outlet in Bengaluru and 21{+s}{+t} in the country.

Located at ITPL Main Road, Whitefield, the store will offer 6,000 specialised products and services tailored to the needs of its well heeled, global clientele who are willing to pay a premium for quality products.

Towards profits

The new store layout is an attempt by the company to steer its course towards profitability, which it has not achieved over the past 13 years.

Walmart veteran Arvind Mediratta who took over as Managing Director of Metro Cash & Carry India on February 1, told BusinessLine that India is one of the company’s top growth markets along with Russia, China and Turkey.

The key to driving profitability is to consolidate in existing markets like Bengaluru before expanding to new cities. “Bengaluru can easily take 8-10 Metro outlets; we will open our sixth store soon,” he said.

“We have carefully studied the demographics and psychographics of the affluent population in Whitefield. The insights gleaned from their consumption habits have resulted in this new store layout, right assortment tailored to local needs, new signages, and better communications of our offers to our three core customer segments — kirana stores, hotels/restaurants/caterers, and self-employed professionals and non-food traders,” said Mediratta.

Local sourcing The 21 stores are located in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Zirakpur, Amritsar, Vijayawada, Indore, Jaipur and Surat. Each store has a base of 50,000 customers and 98 per cent of the products are sourced locally.

The company generates the bulk of its revenue from kirana stores and dominates the $500-billion Indian wholesale market with 1.5 million sq ft of wholesale store footprint.

Its customers are guaranteed 95 per cent on-shelf availability of products, fresh inventory, relevant assortment, loading facilities, expert advice on commodities, doorstep delivery at nominal costs as well as transparent pricing.

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