Aditya Birla Retail mulls expansion of supermarket chain

MUMBAI: Aditya Birla Retail ( ABRL), that operates supermarkets and hypermarket formats under 'more' brand, is eyeing a break-even at the company level by FY 15, a top company official said.

The retail major also is looking at scaling up its supermarket and hypermarket chain to 1,300 and 65 respectively by 2016. Currently it runs 540 supermarts and nine hypermarkets across the country.

"We are hoping to be PAT positive by FY 15 at the company level. We see EBIDTA break even by 2013. However most of our stores are already profitable and the new stores will be profitable in 15-20 months," ABRL's CEO, Thomas Varghese told PTI here.

On investments for store expansion, Varghese said it will invest Rs 18-20 crore in its hypermarket and around Rs 40-lakh in supermarket every year.

This company plans to have 12 hypermarkets and add around 100 supermarkets by end this fiscal, he added.

The hypermarkets will come up in existing metros like Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Mumbai, while the supermarkets will come up in Tier II cities such as Surat, Nagpur, Kolkata and Bhubaneswar among others.