After scouting for a local retail partner for over 12 months in India, Tesco has decided to go solo in India and enter the lucrative retail market via Cash-n-Carry [wholesale] format. Philip Clarke, Director, Europe and Asia, Tesco, said
We are doing 100 per cent ourselves. It shows that we are totally committed to it. We will build our system and people will understand that in due course of time.
In a related announcement, Tesco has also announced an exclusive franchisee agreement with Tata group’s Trent Ltd. Under the agreement, Trent’s hypermarket format Star Bazaar will have access to Tesco’s Supply chain, Inventory, IT systems and Infrastructure management all coming at a cost of small fee to Tesco. Mr. Noel Tata, CMD of Trent said,
Tesco has many more years of retail experience than us in IT systems, understanding customers, processes and so on. India is a hugely diversified market and the association will be of great help to us.
The Cash-N-Carry format is the only format available for Foreign companies to enter Retail sector in India without any hassles. German retailer, Metro showed the way to others and soon even local retailers like Reliance, Pantaloon, Videocon group are all set to compete vigorously in this segment.