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| Biyani eyes Rs 10,000 cr revenue from foods biz in 4 yrs |
| Press Trust of India / Mumbai Aug 29, 2010, 13:50 IST |
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 The Kishore Biyani-run Future Group is eyeing around Rs 10,000 crore revenue from its food business over the next 3-4 years and a 40 per cent growth this fiscal.
"We expect around Rs 10,000 crore from our food business in the next 3-4 years -- we see this segment as a huge growth driver going forward," Future Group's Founder and Chief Executive Officer Kishore Biyani told PTI here.
The group's strategy will be to drive growth through vegetarian foods, a high-growth segment, he said.
"People have become more selective in their tastes. Our vegetarian foods are doing very well," he said.
The Group has around 210 Big Bazaar and Food Bazaar stores in the country.
Another growth-driver going forward will be its fashion business, which Biyani said, was "surprisingly" unaffected even during the economic slowdown.
"We maintained our prices even as competition raised theirs by 20-30 per cent," he said.
The growth in fashion would be driven by customers who have become "very selective" in what they wear everyday.
Revealing the secret behind the group's increasing success in the fashion business, Biyani said this was because the group was always attempted to provide the best products to its customers.
"They (customers) accept both indigenous and modernity. But sometimes it becomes difficult to say what they need. Therefore, we always try to provide them the best," the Future Group Chief said.
The group's future appeared bright, he said, adding it was eyeing a 40 per cent growth this fiscal.
"We have learnt the lessons of survival during the economic downturn. It was an opportunity to take some bold decisions and focus on our existing businesses," he said, describing the meltdown period as "a big challenge for the retail industry."
Cost-control was one of the key focus areas for the group then while another major challenge involved taking the call on whether to increase the prices of its products.
"We created a cost-control committee and focused on our existing businesses without changing the prices of our products," he said.
Admitting to some jitters during the period, India's leading retailer said that business was indeed impacted in places like Bangalore where the recession hit its major industry, IT, with many employees fearing job losses.
"It was a big challenge not to close down our Bangalore outlets at that time," he said. In sharp contrast, Kolkata remained unaffected by the slowdown, he said.
Biyani's group, which operates large retail chains--Big Bazaar, Pantaloon and Food Bazaar --is wiser after the recession and once more on the high-growth path with a 40 per cent growth target this fiscal.
Besides, the group also has an increasing presence in the financial services sector through its two companies -- Future Generali Life Insurance and Future Generali India Insurance (its general insurance company).
Upbeat about the future, Biyani described the recession as "the best time to have learnt how to run the business."
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