Flipkart to invest Rs600 crore in Kolkata logistics hub
22 Mar 2018
Flipkart, India’s leading e-commerce major, plans to invest about Rs600 crore for an integrated mega logistics hub in West Bengal, to cater to the eastern and northeastern regions of the country.
The company plans to set up the 40 lakh sq ft high-tech logistics hub near Kolkata, the state capital. A company spokesperson said on Wednesday that it had already started looking for an 80-acre plot of land on the outskirts of Kolkata.
According to him, it will be the biggest investment in logistics by any e-commerce company in eastern India. The new facility will provide jobs to about 5,000 people, and also generate an additional 15,000 jobs indirectly.
Flipkart Ltd, which is backed by SoftBank, is one of the three major e-commerce giants in India, and faces stiff competition from Amazon and digital payment site Paytm, which is backed by Alibaba Holdings. All three major firms have been splurging funds to acquire a bigger market share.
A report by an international agency on Wednesday said that Flipkart had accumulated losses of nearly Rs24,000 crore ($3.6 billion) as of March 2017, as against Rs10,000 crore a year earlier.
Citing data filed by the company with the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority of Singapore, the report said that Flipkart sold an average of Rs54.4 crore every day for the fiscal ending 31 March 2017, as against Rs42.2 crore in the previous fiscal.
Flipkart is in talks with Walmart Inc in a bid to take on its two rivals in India. The company also has other fashion brands including Myntra and Jabong, and also owns PhonePe, the payments platform.