The largest retailer in India and a Reliance Industries subsidiary, Reliance Retail Ventures LTD (RRVL), on Thursday signed agreements to pay Rs 2,850 crore for a 100% equity investment in wholesale food products company METRO Cash & Carry India Pvt Ltd.
International food wholesaler METRO AG, a German firm, also owns retail and department stores. It specialises in meeting the needs of independent retailers as well as hotels, restaurants, and caterers. The Indian division of the corporation, known for its “Cash and Carry” business strategy, has now been acquired by Reliance Retail.
Reliance Retail gains access to a large base of registered kiranas and other institutional customers, a strong supplier network, and some of the global best practises implemented by METRO in India through this acquisition, the company said in a statement. It also gains access to a wide network of METRO India stores located in prime locations across key cities.
The first company to introduce a cash-and-carry business model to India was METRO AG, which began operations there in 2003. At the moment, METRO AG employs roughly 3,500 people and runs 31 large format stores across 21 cities.
The Cash and Carry concept is essentially characterised by its customer base, claims the company’s website. Instead of putting orders with several vendors, registered business customers visit a Cash & Take location, make their own purchases, and carry them back themselves.
According to the company’s website, it offers business clients “a vast choice of up to 50,000 food and non-food products, available under one roof at wholesale pricing.” Through its shop network and eB2B app, the multi-channel B2B cash & carry wholesaler has reached over 3 million B2B customers in India, of whom 1 million are frequent buyers.
Under the name METRO Wholesale, it presently runs 31 wholesale distribution facilities in the cities of Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, and Jaipur.
“With METRO India, we are selling a growing and profitable wholesale business in a very dynamic market at the appropriate time,” stated Steffen Greubel, CEO of METRO AG. We are confident that Reliance would be a good partner for us going forward and will be able to successfully guide METRO India in this market.
Source: The Hindu
