Aim to grow to 1000 SKUs from 550: Future CEO

In an interview with CNBC-TV18's Priya Sheth, Kishore Biyani, CEO of Future Group said that the company at present has 550 stock keeping units (SKU) and aims to grow up to 1000 SKUs.His comment came in the wake of news that Future Group is likely to tie-up with Trent Hypermarket.Below is the transcript of Kishore Biyani’s interview with Priya Sheth on CNBC-TV18.Q: Speaking about this tie-up, run us through what is the kind of incremental revenues that you are expecting as part of this tie-up.A: We are a consumer goods company with a portfolio of more than 31 brands around 550 stock keeping units (SKU), we want to grow it up to 1,000 SKUs and maybe another 4-5 brands addition into it. So, we are into dairy, we are into bakery, we are into processed foods, we are into staples, into spices, into dry fruits, into fresh, multiple categories as a retailer, everything multi-product and multi-brand at the same time. So, we are looking at distribution now to augment our sales, because we are putting up large capacities of various factories – oatmeal, spice mean, rice meal, biscuit factories, chocolate factories, dairies. So, we need distribution and so we are experimenting with distribution at a national level, by starting a distribution in Banaras patiently. And this is our modern trade distribution outside the Future Group foray. You will see our brands now available in cash and carry stores subsequent to this. You will see it being launched in other retails chains, so we are as good as any other brand in the country. And we should get a rightful place in every shelves and let the consumer decide which brands and the products are better,Q: Run us through what is the kind of contribution that food in FMCG makes up of your overall pie and Rs 4,000 crore another target that you have set for yourself, run us through that.A: We are looking at a Rs 4,000 crore revenue for this company next year. And which is a company on food and FMCG space. And we believe we have our own distribution which is our own group retail stores which are going to sell it. Some of our brands are already sold outside – Nilgiri as a brand is sold outside in the South everywhere. We have Kara as a brand which is sold in 10,000 retail outlets.We have introduced all our brands out here with Star India Bazaar. We will see more and more retailers joining us and selling our products. We will see a lot of products being now sold. Another test launch we are going to do in probably in Vashi and Suburbs of Mumbai in which we are going to introduce all our brands in multiple stores.Q: Apart from this tie-up with Star Bazaar, what are the other tie-ups that you are working with? Which are the other stores that we can expect you to expand the distribution footprint?A: Every retailer will be selling our brands.Q: Have you forged tie-ups with any other retailers?A: This is the beginning, you will see everybody joining in.Q: Also wanted to understand. Rs 20,000 crore is your target for 2021. Are we on track or can we expect some more out of this?A: We have a definite plan for each and every product and category and how we are going to distribute it which we will be unveiling only on the eight of this month.