METRO Cash & Carry Opens its 21th Outlet in India; Fifth in Bengaluru to Strengthen Retail Presence

On the precipice of its 13th anniversary, the German major METRO Cash and Carry has opened its 21th outlet in India and its 5th in Bengaluru, where it began its journey in the country, the company has also announced plans to touch 50 stores by 2020. 

The new outlet in Whitefield boasts of superior product assortment and pricing relevant to the catchment area. The layout of the store has been redesigned to offer products of a similar category together, like detergents have been placed after apparel and cleaning agents have been placed alongside cleaning appliances. This will be the format for all stores, now onwards," said Arvind Mediratta, Managing Director, METRO Cash and Carry India.

The company has outlets in 13 cities across nine states. "We will strengthen our presence in those markets where we are present. In fact, Bengaluru itself has the potential to contain a total of 8-10 stores. We want to leverage such potential and improve market size," he said.

At an average investment of Rs 50 crore per store, the company takes pride in having fully researched its market. "We put in sufficient efforts in studying the markets we enter.

Moreover, having sorted the supply chain and back-end in such markets, we would like to exploit their full potential," he said, adding, "In most markets, we have a single store.

Before we venture out, we want to fortify these markets." Within the newly launched format, the company has also simplified pricing so as to communicate it better. For prices above Rs 50, the company has deleted decimal pricing altogether, and has retained single place after decimals for prices below Rs 50.