Metro India

German wholesale retailer Metro Cash & Carry is planning to open four new stores in India by the end of 2012, reports www.rediff.com and Business Standard.

A Metro spokesperson told Business Standard the new wholesale distribution centres would cost around Rs700m each, and revealed the location of two of the four facilities as Zirakpur in Punjab and Indore in Madhya Pradesh.

Metro Cash & Carry, a sales division of Metro Group, currently operates 11 wholesale distribution centres — two each in Bangalore, Hyderabad and Mumbai, and one each in Kolkata, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Delhi and Jaipur, the reports said.

'Metro is able to offer an economical alternative `to Indian wholesale markets` that maintains a wide assortment of over 10,000 food and non-food products in a clean buying environment, all available under one roof, at low wholesale prices. This is steadily finding traction in the Indian market, where Metro Cash & Carry's wholesale operations serve professional customers (B2B) in India,' the spokesperson added.