Wal-Mart re-christened as 'Bharti-Wal-mart'

By siliconindia   |   Wednesday, 07 March 2007, 18:30 IST
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New Delhi: The Bharti Group and their US partner retail giant Wal-Mart, are planning to use three separate brand names in India for three different store formats. "It's only logical that we call the cash-and-carry format Bharti-Wal-Mart as it's a joint venture between the two companies. The Bharti owned front-end retail stores and the franchisee-owned neighborhood stores would carry two different names. It makes sense to operate under three different names but nothing has been finalized as yet," said Bharti Group chairman Sunil Mittal to a national daily. There is intense speculation on whether the Wal-Mart name will be used in India given the political controversy over FDI in retail. Citing the example of Tesco and other foreign retailers who have different names for small and large format stores, Mittal said, "Wal-Mart has no problems with the naming of the front-end since we are running it." Bharti's retail foray will also see the advent of its private labels. "All retailers will have to venture into private labels. The brand names of the products will be completely different?it will be something that will appeal to the public," Mittal added. However, it is highly unlikely that Bharti will open its first retail outlet by September 2007. At the moment, the sites are being short-listed and would open its first outlet in early 2008, confirmed Mittal. At the moment, the agreement with Wal-Mart for the cash-and-carry joint venture 'was very close to being finalized'.