Metro AG bullish on India business, says to continue expanding in India

Germany's cash-and-carry major Metro AG on Monday said it is bullish on its India business and continues to expand store and e-commerce footprint, amid reports that it is reviewing whether to continue its operations in India.

While declining to comment on its future in India, stressing that Metro regularly assesses its international portfolio, a company spokesperson said the Metro India business is doing well.

"At Metro, we regularly assess our international portfolio. METRO India business is doing well and we have seen a big jump (more than 57 per cent) in our Ebitda for FY21 vs FY20," said a Metro spokesperson.

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Ebitda stands for earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation.

He further said that as a policy, the company does not comment on market speculations.

The company has "strong equity" with the kiranas and has seen strong growth in its Kirana business over the past two years despite competition.

"We are bullish on our India business and continue to expand our store and e-commerce footprint. Our e-commerce business in FY21 grew by 5.7x against the previous year and we also successfully opened three new stores," the spokesperson said.

In the business-to-business (B2B) retail, Metro Cash & Carry India competes with Flipkart Wholesale (earlier Walmart India), Jiomart, Booker, ElasticRun and Udaan.

After the pandemic, B2B retailers are facing stiff competition from e-commerce players, a channel that has fast emerged in the past two years.

Metro Cash and Carry entered the Indian market in 2003 and currently operates 30 wholesale distribution centres under the brand Metro Wholesale, in which six stores are in Bengaluru, four in Hyderabad, two each in Mumbai and Delhi, and the rest in other cities.

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