Financial Times

Cargills plans 500 outlets in 3 years
While most business establishments await the first "investment-friendly" moves of the new Freedom Alliance government, Cargills, the supermarket chain, said it was going ahead with an investment of over Rs. 1.5 billion in the current financial year by increasing Food City outlets to 100 from 52 now.

The group's three-year plan of a total of 500 supermarket outlets across the country at a cost of Rs 30 million per outlet is also on track. "To us … it doesn't matter who is in power. Our interaction is with the farmer, producer and the consumer.

We want to give the producer and the consumer decent prices," noted Imtiaz Wahid, Cargills Ceylon's Deputy Managing Director. The tie-up with Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) will see 25 new Cargills Express outlets in the same financial year. KFC, the international chicken fast food chain also in the Cargills' stable, is preparing to open 14 outlets this year from a current seven. What next? "Yoghurt and fresh milk," says Dr Jagjit S. Punjrath, Managing Director of Cargills Quality Dairies (Pvt) Ltd.

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