Ahead of the GST implementation Future Group has made an announcement. Future Group’s CEO, Kishore Biyani has decided that he wouldn’t invest or operate in the e-commerce space for at least two years. While commenting on the reason for this news, he said the group has already sunk ₹300 crores on e-commerce ventures and it is reeling under losses. Now, India’s leading brick-and-mortar retailer wants to focus all its energies and cash on the conventional business since that generates much higher returns. He also added that none of the e-commerce firms in India is making money and losses are as much as their turnover.
The Future Group has sunk around ₹250 crore on FutureBazaar.com, which was the group’s first venture into online around 10 years ago: Other Web ventures were Big Bazaar Direct and the acquired entity Fab Furnish, which has already shut down. The company is also exiting the furniture business HomeTown, shut sportswear arm Planet Sports and merge stores of electronics chain Ezone within supermarket BigBazaar.
Biyani is in the midst of rejigging his business, whereby the group will focus on core categories of fashion and food & grocery. The Group will now invest ₹300 crore to set up 15 new Central stores this year to take the total store count to over 50. This would increase their growth to 40% where the revenue will going to be ₹3,500 crore.