TESCO, Britain’s largest grocer and world’s third largest supermarket chain, is in talks with Tata to form a strategic JV. Tesco had earlier lost to Wal-Mart in forming a partnership with Bharti enterprise. It is looking to expand in India, which has a retail market of over $ 350 billion. 60 per cent of total floor space that Tesco has comes from overseas business.
Tata is not the only potential partner that Tesco is in talks with. It is exploring various options and is in talks with many other retailers. Tata has maintained thus far that it is not looking for any partner in food retailing and the talks with Tesco is just exploratory.
