Talks are on to hire the former Asia-Pacific head of Electrolux Peter Birch to head Videocon’s entire retail businesses. Some of the names being considered for the format are Bold, Next Cash & Carry and Videocon Cash & Carry.

The company may also tie up with a global player in this space, sources close to the development said. All the retail businesses like Next Retail, Planet M and the cash & carry format currently housed under Videocon Industries will also be spun off as Videocon Retail some time in mid-08.

“The growth in consumer demand and the growing share of the organised players in retail is compelling. We see the retail business, which is currently doubling for us each year, as a great value proposition,” said Venugopal Dhoot, CMD, Videocon Industries.

KSA Technopak, Ernst & Young and Price WaterhouseCoopers have been roped in to advise the company on the retail initiative. The company has kicked off the venture by acquiring land in Ahmedabad, Calcutta, Bangalore, Aurangabad and Ahmednagar.
The cash & carry business will retail food, grocery, apparel, footwear, consumer electronics, furnishings, hardware and general merchandise. Videocon plans to set up around 40 large stores, each consisting of 1,00000 to 75,000 sq ft across the country, for its cash & carry business by 2012.

A back-end office for the business is being set up in Navi Mumbai to deal with domestic and other global suppliers. Meanwhile, the company has hired Essar Retail’s COO Subir Ghosh to head the Planet M business. K S Raman is the executive director of all the retail businesses. Videocon Industries has outlined a total investment of Rs 4,000 crore during the next five years in the retail business.

The report said six retailers from the two countries have entered the Top 250 rankings, including Chinese retailer Bailian Group(1), which entered the list at number 101. The highest ranked Russian retailer was X5 Retail Group NV (X5) at number 191.

Dr Ira Kalish, Deloitte Research, said: “This is an exciting time for global retailing. There is evidence of consolidation and modernisation in emerging markets, and the strategies behind the emergence of these new stores reflect a growing maturity among emerging market businesses.”

The total retail sales for the Top 250 rose to $3.25 trillion in fiscal 2006, up eight percent from fiscal 2005 with only 36 retailers seeing declining sales in 2006, compared to 49 in 2005.

The report said the average net profit for the group (based on available figures from 187 companies) was 3.6 per cent, a small increase from 3.5 per cent last year. Just seven of the 187 companies reported a net loss in 2006, compared with 15 of 188 companies in 2005.

World’s largest retailer Wal-Mart continued to top the list, and increased its lead over second placed Carrefour Group (Carrefour). The big mover was Tesco PLC (Tesco), which overtook German retail giant Metro AG to take fourth place, the first movement among the Top five since 2003. In doing so, Tesco also became the second largest retailer in Europe and is gaining ground on Carrefour.

Kalish added: “The Top 10 retailers’ share of Top 250 combined sales continues to inch up. With combined sales of $978.5 billion in fiscal 2006, the world’s 10 largest retailers accounted for 30.1 per cent of Top 250 sales compared with 29.4 per cent in 2005.”

Pantaloon Retail alleges that Cadbury has discriminated against it by giving preferential prices and treatment to rival retailers including Germany’s Metro and Shoprite from the US.

Kishore Biyani, chief executive of Future Group, which owns Pantaloon, said: “We are taking their products out of the stores. We are not receiving the same treatment as others. They are giving better prices to other operators.”

A spokesman for Cadbury said: “As far as we are concerned, negotiations are still under way and we are still trying to find a mutually agreeable set of terms.”

The dispute, which will affect about 200 Pantaloon stores, threatens to harm Cadbury’s business in India, where it holds a 71pc share of the chocolate market and grew revenues more than 20pc last year.

It is not the first disagreement Pantaloon has had with a global food or drinks company.

A previous dispute with Pepsi, which Mr Biyani said was focused on disagreements about profit margins, resulted in Pantaloon taking some of the drink giant’s products out of its stores. That row has since been resolved and Pantaloon is again stocking Pepsi products.

The Cadbury dispute revolved around “pricing, margins and discrimination”, Mr Biyani said. He declined to say how much the Cadbury contract was worth.

One industry source downplayed Pantaloon’s claims. “This is just a negotiating tactic and one they have used before. In greenfield markets such as India, which are still maturing, these tactics are a lot more common.”

In the UK, retailers are reluctant to make their disputes with branded food suppliers public for fear of losing the chance to stock their products.

Global food and drink companies have increased their focus on the developing world in recent years as consumer markets have boomed. Industry insiders said the dispute suggested that local companies were growing more confident about standing up to foreign multinationals on pricing and other issues.

Pantaloon is expected to make revenues of more than 57b rupees (£685m) this year, according to JP Morgan. That is forecast to grow to 90bn rupees in 2009 and 124bn rupees in 2010, highlighting the growth potential of the company.

Cadbury has previously labelled India’s 41bn-rupee confectionery sector as a “battleground and must-win market”, according to local media reports.