Indian express carrier Gati is to invest EUR 8.7 million over the next three years in a largestring of retail outlets throughout the country, the first of which has opened in Hyderabad.
Gati said it will open 100 owned stores by March next year – its new Café Deliver network –and offer franchises to 1,500 kiosks across the country in a bid to increase its domestic presencefollowing a rebranding in October.
The cafés will act as express pick-up and delivery points, as well as offering fax,photocopying, telephone, printing and Internet browsing services.
“Cargo services remain our core business, however it is not mandatory that a person steppinginto the outlet to use a photocopying facility should be a cargo services customer,” Maheen Kannu,Gati’s head of retail business, told journalists at the opening of the first store. Seven stores inleading Indian cities should be open by March this year, Kannu said.
Gati’s move into the retail sector reflects the broader trend among express firms in India toopen up city centre shops to target the country’s fast-growing small- and medium-sized enterprises.
United Parcel Service is planning to open a total of 150 UPS Stores throughout India by 2011.The US group currently has two UPS Stores in India, in Mumbai and Delhi, and plans to open otherssoon in Pune and Bangalore.
Gati, headquartered in Secunderabad, is targeting global sales of EUR 175 million by 2009.
It posted revenues of over EUR 78 million for the year ending 30 June 2006, while firstquarter revenue for the 2006-2007 fiscal year, the quarter ending 30 September 2006, rose 30% onthe same period in 2005 to EUR 22.6 million.
