Trent to launch 50 Star Bazaar hypermarkets

Mumbai: Trent, the retail arm of the Tata Group, has drawn up a Rs 2,000 crore investment plan for setting up 50 hypermarkets, Star Bazaar over the next five years, a top company official said.

'We are launching 50 new hypermarket stores 'Star Bazaar' in the next five years at an investment of around Rs 2,000 crore,' Trent Ltd's Managing Director Noel Tata said in Mumbai.

Trent aims to expand to 100 stores across formats by FY 10. The money will be raised through internal accruals only, Tata said.

The company has launched its second Star Bazaar at Andheri in Mumbai today. Spread across nearly 75,000 square feet over two floors, Star Bazaar is a one-stop shop.

'Higher property price has hit retail expansion. In hypermarkets, property is a major and significant cost in our business,' Tata said.

Commenting on inflation affecting the retail business, Tata said, 'people are looking for better value in inflation. This is the right time for us to be opening hypermarkets to provide value to customers.'

'We have huge pressures on cost-- both in terms of raw material and staff. We have been able to absorb quite a substantial portion of those increased costs,' he said, adding that the best way of driving cost down was growing the business as fast as possible.