Why has Bharti's retail venture not picked up steam yet?

By Nayantara Rai, CNBC-TV18

After a low profile launch, one expected Bharti Retail to pick up steam. But even after a year and a half of its much-publicised partnership with Walmart and an investment plan of USD 2-2.5 billion over 7-8 years, not much has happened.

Four months and only four stores and that too all in the family backyard – Ludhiana; that is Bharti Retail's score so far. Surely one would expect better from a group that adds close to 85,000 subscribers a day on its mobile network.

While Bharti never made its internal targets public and analysts expected much more, why has the company been finding it difficult in rolling out its Easy Day supermarkets?

Rajan Mittal, MD, Bharti Enterprises, said “We firmly believe that the back-end needs to be stitched up before going aggressive on front-end.”

Bharti says the plan was always to start slow and gain experience from these initial three to four stores. Quality, not quantity is more important, says the company.

But how does Bharti Retail's initial launch stack up against other heavywieghts like Reliance Retail?

Reliance opened 11 Fresh supermarkets on the day of its launch itself and built that up to 250 stores in five months and 630 today after a year and a half.

Other players like Spencer's opened 50 stores, while Pantaloons had 290 across all formats including 9 Big Bazaars and Food Bazaars all since April this year, when Bharti launched its supermarkets.