India's Future Group aims to become a US$3bn entity by 2011, with retail space of 17m ft2. At the moment the group has retail space of around 14m ft2, generating business of nearly US$2bn, said company owner Kishore Biyani.
Mr Biyani was speaking in Kolkata at the opening of the Sealdah Commercial Complex, a 132,000ft2 shopping mall developed with the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA) and the Kolkata-based Keventer Group. Future Group has a 50 per cent stake in the venture.
The Sealdah complex is the first of its size to be built next to a major railway station, and Mr Biyani said his company is looking at properties near other stations in which to house Big Bazaar and Food Bazaar stores, India's Financial Chronicle reported.
'As much as 30-35 per cent of our business comes from Big Bazaar and other Bazaar formats. We are bullish about locations next to busy railway stations. While other malls in and around the city see a footfall of 50,000 per week, we are expecting footfalls of 10,000-12,000 per day at an outlet like this,' he said.
'We have been on the lookout for an in ideal property in Kolkata to put out a central store for the last three years. Hopefully in the next few years we will have our first central store here and over the next three to four years we will have two central stores in the city,' Mr Biyani said.
