Won’t get into e-comm for 2 years: Biyani

Kolkata:

Future Group

CEO and retail magnate Kishore Biyani has made it clear that he would not venture into online retailing for at least the next two years. This puts to rest rumours that he was looking to acquire distressed online startups as venture funding dried up in the past one year.

Biyani

had bought the struggling furniture e-tailer FabFurnish from Rocket Internet for $3 million last year even as he shuttered the ambitious e-commerce platform Bigbazaardirect. “It is stupid to be in online business now,” Biyani told TOI. He said the combined losses of the e-commerce sector could be Rs 25,000 crore, going by conservative estimates. The Future

Group

founder pointed out that the losses piled up by online retailing sometimes exceeded its revenue. “Their losses are more than revenue, forget about cash profit,” he added. Hence, the group has no plans to enter the online business either through greenfield or acquisition route in two years, said the country’s big-box retail pioneer whose apathy to online commerce is quite well known. Incidentally, Biyani went online in 2013 with 1,000 franchisees but found it unviable. Citing his experience, Biyani added that in the last few years, Future Group has lost Rs 270-300 crore in online business. Bigbazaardirect, which was once predicted to overtake offline stores, sent executives with tablets to doorsteps for home delivery orders. Three listed companies — Future Retail, Future Lifestyle Fashions and Future Consumer Enterprises — make Biyani’s retail universe currently. Share prices of Future Retail and Future Lifestyle touched all-time highs earlier this month, more than doubling in the last 12 months. Biyani successfully restructured and deleveraged his group weighed down by debts as he expanded aggressively in the past decade.