Reliance and Bharti Walmart maybe capturing the headlines of every major newspaper, but the reality is Pantaloon Retail continues to open stores aggressively and we are really surprised by the number of stores it opened last month.
Landmarks achieved by Pantaloon and Future Group in May are as follows,
- Opening of 7th Central in Oberoi Mall, Mumbai
- Big Bazaar stores were opened in Seven Seas Mall, Vadodara and Metropolitian Building, Kolkata. They totally have 89 Big Bazaars at the end of May-2008.
- Food Bazaars were opened in OSL Tower, Cuttak, Seven Seas Mall, Vadodara and Metropolitian Building, Kolkata. The company now operates 133 Food Bazaar stores. [equivalent to Reliance Fresh, Subhiskha, More etc]
- The 25th e-Zone store was opened in Rajajinagar, Bangalore.
We have reliable information from company sources that Pantaloon will open the following stores in June and July-08,
- 12 Big Bazaar stores, including cut-in Food Bazaar’s [14 in number]
- 4 Pantaloons Fresh Fashion stores are scheduled to open during the months of June & July 2008.
- 4 E-Zone’s, 1 Furniture Bazaar outlets, 3 Home Town and 5 Home Bazaar stores.
What is truly amazing is inspite of retailers poaching talent from Pantaloon, the company has managed to run a far better show than its competitors. Reliance, Bharti and Birla’s have deep pockets but are still unable to match Pantaloon’s retailing ability [at least till now]Its not just Money Power, but the right execution and ability to understand Indian consumer and the market that will make a difference between the winner, the survivor and the loser.