With an aim to tap the growing ecommerce market in India, Godrej Group owned premium food retailer, Godrej Nature’s Basket has acquired Mumbai-based online grocery store, Ekstop.com.
The deal value is around INR 30-40 Cr. and will include Godrej Nature’s Basket taking on debt of INR 10-15 Cr. on the books of Ekstop.com. Ekstop.com has operations in Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and Thane.
As per the deal terms, the management of Ekstop will remain on board with Godrej Nature’s Basket and by 15 March the new online platform will be launched.
According to the market reports, a separate ecommerce team has already been set up, which is offering products across companies such as Godrej Appliances, Godrej Properties and Godrej Industries. Earlier in January, Godrej Nature’s Basket had also partnered with Snapdeal and made 700 products available on the online marketplace.
Godrej Nature’s Basket is present in Mumbai, Delhi, NCR (National Capital Region), Pune, Hyderabad and Bangalore with 32 stores. The retailer also provides same-day home delivery in the five cities through its website.
Recently, Mahindra Group, also acquired Mumbai-based startup Nest Childcare Services Pvt. Ltd’s ecommerce site for baby-related products, Babyoye.com.
According to the Boston Consulting Group and Retailers Association of India forecast in a February report titled Retail 2020: Retrospect, Reinvent, Rewrite, Indian retail market is expected to grow three times to $180 Bn in 2020 from $60 Bn in 2015 and ecommerce at an even faster clip to quadruple in the same time to become a $60-70 Bn market.
