Subhiksha forays into M'htra, to invest Rs 100 cr

Mumbai, Dec 12: In its bid to make its pan-India presence with 1,000 stores, the Tamil Nadu-based retailer Subhiksha today announced that it will make an aggressive entry in Maharashtra by investing a sum of Rs 100 crore.

Briefing the reporters here, Subhiksha Managing Director R Subramanium said ''We will be opening 180 stores across eight cities of the state of which 100 stores would be opened in Mumbai alone.'' He informed that 65 Subhiksha stores were already running in various suburban localities of the island city on a pilot basis and soon the number will go up to 80. Apart from Mumbai, the other cities that are on the radar of Subhiksha include Pune, Nagpur, Kolhapur, Sholapur, Sangli, Nasik and Aurangabad.

Subhiksha will complete 600-store target and will shortly activate Phase II of the expansion plan by foraying in five more states such as Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and West Bengal with a total outlay of Rs 500 crore, he said.

Subhiksha has already crossed the 450-store mark across five states with over 10 lakh square feet of retail space, he pointed out.

Welcoming the Bharati-Wal Mart deal on the retail front, Mr Subramanium said ''It is good that the big players like Wal Mart are making their entry into the country through front doors unlike a host of others that are trying to make backdoor entry through FDI.'' He also claimed that his firm was following the Everyday low price (EDLP) model falling on the lines of the Wal Mart and Tesco in the Western countries.

UNI