JOIN USHypermarket chain Star Bazaar, a Tata-Tesco initiative, has plans to take the number of stores from the present 41 to 200 outlets across India in two to three years.
Star Bazaar is a unit of Trent Hypermarket, which is part of the Trent, a Tata Group Company. Talking about investments, Trent Hypermarket Director (Commercial and Marketing) Uday Varma said, “It depends on the size of the store and the investment in each store will be approximately between Rs 2 crore and Rs 5 crore. Our road map is to open 200 stores in two to three years, and we are focusing mainly on Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru, and we will make entry into Hyderabad.”
Star Bazaar has 21 stores across Bengaluru. It operates in three formats — Star Daily, Star Market and Star Hyper. “While Star Daily is a neighbourhood grocery store with an area of 2,000 to 5,000 sq feet, Star Market is a supermarket format store that operates in 5,000 to 15,000 sq feet, and Star Hyper deals in diverse product categories spread over 15,000 to 30,000 sq feet,” Varma said.
As far as expanding stores are concerned, the hypermarket chain will focus on the Star Market format.
Choosing healthier options
Star Bazaar recently launched ‘Closer to Nature’, an exclusive section for organic, herbal and Ayurvedic merchandise at its stores, offering customers with over 300 SKUs in this category.
Talking about the new initiative, Varma said, “We have 100 SKUs solely from Sri Sri Ayurveda, and we have products from Patanjali and 24 Mantra Organic brands too. Customers are now choosing healthier options and also going for Indian-origin products. Starting from entry-level products like toothpaste, they are moving to other products. This particular Ayurveda space has grown at least two times this year, over the last year.” Sensing a huge potential in this space, Hindustan Unilever launched a raft of Ayurvedic products under its existing brand Ayush.
Sri Sri Ayurveda Head (Modern Trade) Ujjwal Sinha said, “Due to the increased awareness of natural, herbal and organic products, the market is growing phenomenally well. We have 2,000 franchisee stores, and we are present both in the B2C and B2B formats.”
When asked about its major competitor Patanjali, Sinha said, “The market is so huge that there is scope for many brands. We are expanding outside the country too. Right now, we are present in 18 countries.”