Chief Executive Officer Dippanker Halder has given up his post at Wadhwan Food Retail Ltd (WFRL), which owns the Spinach chain of retail stores. According to a person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named, Halder quit last week.
In addition to its plans to have 1,500 stores by 2010, from the current 94, the company has been charting the acquisition route in the last few months. WFRL’s shopping binge began with the acquisition of HLL’s home delivery retail business, Sangam Direct. This June, the company took over management control of Maratha Co-operative Stores in Mumbai. This was followed by the acquisition of F&G chain Sabka Bazaar, which has 35 stores in Delhi, and Delhi-based lifestyle retail chain, The Home Store (THS), present across nine cities.
Earlier this month, Wadhawan Food Retail bought out Bangalore F&G chain S-Mart, its fifth buy in a year. S-Mart operates 13 stores in the city’s prime residential areas. The company has already acquired a 76 per cent stake in S-Mart, and will soon increase it to 96 per cent.
The company is also planning to get into the hypermarket business with plans to set up multiple outlets of larger stores, beginning with North India.
– Bangalore Bureau
