Retail push: Aditya Birla group lines up Rs 300-cr investment

Aditya Birla Retail Ltd (ABRL), the retail arm of the $29.2-billion diversified Aditya Birla Group, recently announced their plan to open 150 new supermarkets and 12 new hypermarkets in the current fiscal year for a planned investment of Rs 300 crore.

Aditya Birla Retail Ltd (ABRL), the retail arm of the $29.2-billion diversified Aditya Birla Group, recently announced their plan to open 150 new supermarkets and 12 new hypermarkets in the current fiscal year for a planned investment of Rs 300 crore. The company currently operates 560 supermarkets and 10 hypermarkets under the “more” brand.

HT Image

With such aggressive expansion plans, ABRL expects to spin thousands of job opportunities.

“We may hire over 4,500 staff on direct payroll under the expansion plans,” said Thomas Varghese, CEO, Aditya Birla Retail, while inaugurating the second hypermarket in Kirti Nagar.

According to estimates, each hypermarket requires the direct involvement of more than 220 people and with 12 hypermarkets on the way, ABRL will hire over 2,600 employees. “Here, we are not counting the creation of indirect jobs (transportation, storage, construction etc, which are 5 times more than the direct jobs,” Varghese said. “Only the retail sector has the huge power of job creation, no other sector spells job opportunities like this.”

To solve the unemployment menace, leading retail firms are pushing the government to open up FDI in multi brand retail. “We are in talks with the government. The opening of retail FDI will create over 8 million additional jobs in the Indian economy by 2020.”