Metro Cash and Carry: a new phase of advancement.
Metro Cash & Carry entered the Indian market in 2003. The company currently operates 31 wholesale distribution centers under the brand METRO Wholesale including six in Bangalore, four in Hyderabad, two each in Mumbai and Delhi, and one each in Kolkata, Jaipur, Jalandhar, Zirakpur, Amritsar, Vijayawada, Ahmedabad, Surat, Indore, Lucknow, Meerut, Nashik, Ghaziabad, Tumakuru, Visakhapatnam, Guntur, and Hubballi.
Metro Cash & Carry India offers close to 7,000 world-class products across a multitude of categories – such as fruits & vegetables, general grocery, dairy, frozen & bakery products, fish & meat, confectionery, detergents & cleaning supplies, health & beauty products, media & electronics, household goods, and apparel – all under one roof, and at transparent, low wholesale prices.
This helps in improving the customers’ offerings while providing them with a reliable supply source. Analyzing the local requirements, a large percentage of the goods are sourced locally and are tailor-made to meet the specific demands of the region.
Cash and Carry wholesale is primarily defined by its customer base and unique business model. This means, registered business customers, visit a Cash & Carry outlet, select their own purchases and carry these back themselves instead of placing orders with multiple vendors.
Every day at METRO outlets across the world, more than our employees serve business customers with a wide assortment of up to 50,000 food and non-food products, available under one roof at wholesale prices.
German company METRO AG is an international food wholesaler, also owning retail and department stores, and Reliance Retail has now acquired the Indian arm of the company, known for its ‘Cash and Carry’ model.
With India becoming one of the largest preferred retail destinations globally, the Indian retail market and cash & carry trade are both growing at a fast pace. Digitization has changed the whole landscape of retail and wholesale cash & carry segments.
Demonetization and introduction of GST have further helped the organized wholesale and retail segments gain a significant share of the pie from the unorganized market, which augurs well for modern retail and cash & carries businesses. There is an enormous opportunity for the wholesale and cash & carry format in India. To give a perspective: India has a huge potential of about 600 Cash & Carry outlets across Tier I, II & III cities.
Considering its sheer potential and the evolving needs of the customers, there is still a huge growth opportunity for this segment in India. We were the first cash & carry the player to foray in India in 2003, and since then we have opened 27 wholesale distribution centers across the country.
It has taken us some time to find the right success formula in India. With a focused approach, we have been able to break even and turn profitable after 15 years of successful operations in India. We are committed to profitably expanding our business in the country.
The Indian retail industry is undergoing an interesting and transformative phase. The per capita income and consumer spending power has increased significantly. Given the size and growth rate, the Indian retail market has immense potential to grow both in the offline and online space, and there is ample room for more players and different formats to co-exist and grow.
India is a land of small and medium-sized businesses. After agriculture, independent business is the largest source of livelihood for people. We have close to 12 million of these neighborhood kirana stores across India.
Despite the expansion of organized retail and e-commerce players, kirana stores hold their sway over the grocery retail business with a whopping 90% share. However, in the modern landscape, kiranas are facing existential dilemmas due to their closed format model and traditional methodology of operation.
Over the years, METRO has become a preferred partner for start-ups and regional brands to accelerate their business. We have been working with new-age food and tech start-ups, and SMEs including women entrepreneurs, many of whom have now scaled up their operations from a single city to multiple cities.
A case in point is that of F-Gear – a brand started in 2004 by an enthusiastic entrepreneur Ruchi Jindal, who started the association with METRO as an exclusive brand.
New categories are getting created because of tectonic shifts in consumer lifestyles. The holy grail of the consumer business is to be able to anticipate these changes and respond to them with appropriate products and services.
We are witnessing the rise of healthy and conscious consumption by consumers. With 65% of India below the age of 35, there is a move towards a healthy life that has created a new market for sports goods and sportswear in the urban cities.
Reliance Retail, which recently acquired Metro AG’s India wholesale business, will turn the stores into destination retail outlets catering to both trade and consumers, said a senior industry executive aware of the plans.