Bharti Wal-Mart opens first cash-and-carry store

Bharti Wal-Mart, the joint venture between Bharti Enterprises and US-based Wal-Mart Stores Inc, which on Saturday opened its first cash-and-carry store in Amritsar, said it will invest over $100 million (about Rs 470 crore) in setting up 15 more such outlets in next 3-4 years.

Bharti Wal-Mart will offer foodgrain up to 5 per cent lower than the prevailing wholesale rates, a top official of the JV said.

The next store is likely by the end of this year. The company has plans to invest over $100 million in 15 new stores in next 3-4 years, Bharti Enterprises Vice-Chairman and MD Rajan Mittal told reporters in Amritsar.

"... Investment in each store will be about $6-7 million without land and building ... I am only talking about the insight of the store," Mittal said.

Spelling out the JV's pricing plans, Bharti Wal-Mart MD and CEO Raj Jain said, "Foodgrain and cereals are two to five per cent cheaper, FMCG products are cheaper by 10 per cent while the apparels and the prices of general merchandise are less up to 25 per cent."

The firm will open stores initially in Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh but later it would spread to other parts of the country.

"We will eventually go pan-India," Mittal said.