Bharti Retail betting on private labels

By Swati Khandelwal and Pallavi Srivasatva, CNBC-TV18

As India is all set to become the sixth largest retail market by 2012, Bharti Retail is betting on private labels and plans to have as many as 300 stock keeping units, or SKUs, in food and grocery alone.

A Bharti-MTN combine will become the sixth largest telco in the world in terms of subscriber base. But Bharti Retail's President and Chief Operating Officer, Vinod Sawhny is more excited about India becoming the sixth largest retail market by 2012.

The company, which recently opened its first retail outlet in Ludhiana called Easy Day, will concentrate on smaller format stores for the time being. The company is also betting on private labels and says it will contribute a substantial part to their revenues.

“Private labels will contribute as much as 40%,” said Vinod Sawhny, President and COO, Bharti Retail.

While the company is looking at labeling in-store fruits and vegetables too, it initially plans to launch private labels in food and grocery.

The company has not yet announced the number of store rollouts for the short term, even as it claims its long-term target of covering 10 million square feet of retail space by 2012 is on track. However, the company does admit that real estate is a problem.