Kishore Biyani targets 300 Big Bazaar outlets by 2011

Unfazed by the fears of an economic slowdown, Kishore Biyani's Big Bazaar, the flagship retail chain of the Future Group, says it has a unique milestone to its credit; being the first hypermarket format in the world with 101 stores  within seven years -- the fastest rollout ever.
 
Currently, Big Bazaar has 98 stores in the country, including the recently opened store in Mysore last Friday. Big Bazaar is opening three more stores today, one ach at Pune's Kalyani Nagar, Cuttack's Darga Bazaar and Delhi's Rajouri Garden, taking the eventual store count to 101.

Big Bazaar curently operates in 59 cities  and says it receives 110 million footfalls into its stores.
 
In October 2001 Kishore Biyani opened the first Big Bazaar opened the country's first hypermarket retail outlet in Kolkatta, when the metropolis was still Calcutta. In the same month, two more stores were added – one each in Hyderabad and Mumbai.
 
''We initially decided to name the format as ''Bazaar'' because we had designed the store keeping the Indian mandi style in mind," says Biyani. "Since the size of the hypermarket was bigger than an average mandis, the thought came to name it as ''Big Bazaar''.  However, we had 'freezed' on the punch line ''Isse Se Sasta Aur Achha Kahi Nahi'' much before we met the creative agency to design the final logo of Big Bazaar.''
 
Though, Big Bazaar was started purely as a fashion format including apparel, cosmetics, accessory and general merchandise, the first Food Bazaar format was added as Shop-In-Shop within Big Bazaar in the year 2002. Today, Big Bazaar, with its wide range of products and service offering, reflects the aspirations of millions of Indians.
 
As part of the 101 store celebration, Future Group's flagship hypermarket retail chain Big Bazaar has announced ''Once In A Lifetime'' offers for its customers from 1 October to 5 October across all its stores. The offer will run on products and services in the  Food Bazaar, Electronic Bazaar, Furniture Bazaar, M Bazaar, Navaras and Depot shop in shops also apart from apparels, footwear, accessories and general merchandise in Big Bazaar.
 
It plans to offer a free bedroom set on the purchase of a wardrobe; 5kg  of flour and 4kg of sugar free on the purchase of a 5-litr Dalda jar; microwave ovens for Rs1,799, etc.
 
''Since the beginning, we have kept Big Bazaar as a soft brand, which reflects the true Indian value," says Rajan Malhotra, president, strategy and convergence, and Big Bazaar's first employee since early 2001. "We believed in growing with society, participating and celebrating all regional and local community festivals and giving customers preferences above everything else.'' 
 
Future Group plans to have 300 stores and has projected revenues of Rs 13,000 crore by 2011.