Big Bazaar plans expansion, merger and takes online help
Kishore Biyani's Future group-owned hypermarket chain Big Bazaar plans on launching 100 stores all across India within next one year. Big Bazaar business head Manish Agarwal said that it currently runs around 300 stores across 100 cities in the country and is now looking to expand its reach. Moreover, Future Group is in negotiations with grocery retailer HyperCity for a tentative merger. Here's more.
What's it all about?
Future Retail said, in its filing, that preliminary discussions are being carried out at this moment. The firm has not entered into any legal agreement with K. Raheja Corp. Group, which owns HyperCity Retail, or agreed to any business collaboration, till now. HyperCity currently runs 20 large format stores in Delhi, Noida, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Bhopal, Ludhiana, Amritsar, Jaipur, Pune, and Ahmedabad.
Taking a look back
Biyani's expansion via mergers or acquisitions is renowned. In 2014, Future Group acquired South India-based convenience store chain Nilgiris for Rs. 300 crore. In 2015, Future group merged its retail business with Bharti Retail in a Rs. 750 crore all-stock deal, creating one of the largest Indian supermarket chains with Rs. 15,000 crore turnover. The same year, Easy Day was also acquired by Biyani.
Partnership with Google to increase sales
Meanwhile, Big Bazaar, in order to increase footfall in its offline stores, has partnered with online giant Google to create "Smart Search." Anyone who searches for anything online on Google with Big Bazaar in the query will get exclusive offers, which he/she can redeem in its stores. However, this offer is only available for a day in the first weekend of every month.
What's the plan?
Future Group digital head Pawan Sarda said, "Smart Search has helped us translate the customer's intent into a purchase at our stores and has definitely helped us acquire newer & younger customers." In three prior occasions, 1,80,000 discount coupons were offered against each Google search. The firm says, due to this, an increase of over 30,000 people visiting its physical stores, has been noticed.
