Biyani Eyes New Revenue Streams

Rediff:

Future Group Founder & CEO Kishore Biyani wants to take his pet theme of “collaboration” to the next level for a greater share of the consumer’s wallet.

The group, which owns big retail chains such as Pantaloon [ Get Quote ] and Big Bazaar, will tie up with telephone operators to sell talk time at its outlets, buy stakes in food processing units and mills for backward integration of its foods business. The group will also launch a new commodity brand called “Ekta”.

“Players in the industry need to understand that you can’t do everything yourself, so collaboration is critical,” Biyani said at the India Retail Forum here today. The new moves, said group officials, would go a long way in achieving the revenue target of Rs 25,000 crore in the next four years.

The group’s plans to buy talk time in bulk from telephone operators and sell SIM cards and recharge vouchers in its stores are expected to be in place by early next year and co-branding options with mobile phone operators were being explored, Biyani said.

The Future Group runs over 1,100 stores in the country. Sources familiar with the developments said Future was in talks with Tata Tele Services for a franchisee agreement and was set to sign a deal soon. Biyani, however, denied this.

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