In a spree of dominating India’s Cash & Carry sector, Metro, one of India’s leading wholesalers, has opened its 22nd store in Bengaluru. With this development, Metro has marched ahead in the store race outrunning its counterpart Walmart India.
Before this inclusion, both the firms were running head-to-head in the race with 21 stores each under their belt. Apart from opening its 22 store, Metro has also announced that it will be opening another 50 stores by 2020. One the other hand, its competitor Walmart has chalked a massive expansion plan of 70 stores across India in the coming years.
While the two firms are looking very positive about exploring the Indian market, French retail group Carrefour has already left the country since it was finding it difficult to penetrate the market.
METRO claims higher revenues and better operational metrics than Walmart’s cash-and-carry business in India though these claims could not be independently verified. METRO is also working on a pilot in Jaipur to offer delivery to its registered customers, and plans to roll out the same across its stores, but it will charge for delivery, depending on the weight and the value of the goods ordered, said Arvind Mediratta, MD & CEO, METRO Cash & Carry India.
Last year, Walmart India had kicked off online sales from all its stores. METRO has no plans to offer online sales, said Mediratta. Cash-and-carry stores are allowed to sell to business customers like traders and resellers, hotels, restaurants, caterers, companies and self-employed people.
