Godrej Industries' food retail venture Nature's Basket Limited is planning to raise around Rs.15 Cr through private equity to expand its operations.

Nature's Basket started off in 2005 as just a fruits and vegetable retailer, then later in 2008, restructured and positioned itself as a gourmet store, based on a study done with KA Technopak.

Currently, Nature's Basket has a total of 10 stores located in Mumbai (8) and Delhi (2) and will open its first outlet in south in Bangalore.

Transaction Reference: The Hindu Business Line

More than 70% of Nature's Basket's product range are sourced from various parts of the globe, while balance 30% consists of Indian range of premium fruits and vegetables and Indian organic as well as non organic grocery.

Earlier part of Godrej Agrovet, the company was spun off into a separate company in March 2009. Subhiksha's ex-president, Mohit Khattar is the MD of Nature's Basket.

The company is planning to open another 10-15 outlets over the next 2 years and plans to enter in cities like Ahmedabad and Chennai.

Some players in this space are Future Group's Food Bazaar, Spencer's Retail also has gourmet sections, among others. Five-star hotels also have their own gourmet stores.

In October 2009, HyperCITY Retail exited the gourmet reatiling as it considered an unviable business. A subsidiary of the Raheja group-led Shopper’s Stop, HyperCITY had launched the gourment business in 2008.

The gourmet retailing involves high-quality premium food and retailers are tapping this growing segment owing to rising incomes, globalization of taste and health and nutrition awareness. The gourmet retailing market which is about Rs.1,200 Cr in India is still small and niche and caters to 2-5% of the consumers.

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