Star Bazaar to accommodate more groceries and apparel

Tatas' Trent is giving a face-lift to its hypermarket chain Star Bazaar so that it can accommodate more fresh groceries and apparel. For this, the company has brought in specialists from British partner Tesco Stores, who would be responsible for remodelling the format, giving them a more contemporary look, relevant for Indian consumers.

"All our store designs are inspired by 'what good looks like' for the customers," David Willmott, business coach at Tesco, told ET. "Our intention is to make the shopping experience at Star truly world class while retaining the elements that build its local relevance. Better visibility and display of the promotional lines is also very crucial to make customers aware of the best-priced products in the store."

Tesco is world's third-largest retailer with £48.4 billion of global sales, and has 6,900 stores globally. While the Indian business is microscopic as compared to Tesco, there is a huge opportunity that the $500-billion retail market could offer to the UK-based company.

Food and grocery account for almost 50% of India’s overall retail basket, and even though general merchandise, personal and home products make up for a big bunch of retailer's profit pool, Trent wants to focus more on fresh produce, bakery and meat.

"A lot more space and emphasis will be on fresh food. We do a lot of sourcing directly from farms, so the margins are good. A full-fledged design team from Tesco helped in designing the new store," said Jamshed Daboo, managing director of Trent Hypermarket. "The apparel section is also re-launched with a new ambience under the brand name Zudio."

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