Indian retail’s big daddy Kishore Biyani is regarded as one of the most successful businessmen of all time, but Biyani makes mistakes.

No, really, he does.

In a rare admission, the 57-year told Biyani, chief executive officer of Future Group, said that his conglomerate comprising retail and consumer businesses had committed mistakes.

"We have made mistakes. We got into so many categories of business. Now I have decided not to move out of food, fashion and home. Earlier we were into multiple categories. I think we have done enough mistakes. We didn't have that kind of bandwidth and we didn't have that kind of resources and we have done too many things," he said at the Retail Leadership Summit.

He also admitted that the retail major missed the opportunity in the online space.

"We missed the bus on internet commerce so we are getting into data-driven commerce now (with its blended commerce model Tathastu)," he said, adding that he didn't have the money at that time to get into that bus.

Retailing pioneer Biyani started off with one trouser brand called Pantaloons in 1987 and has since grown it into a retail network spanning across 78 cities. Pantaloons today retails over 200 licensed and international brands, including 24 exclusive in-house brands.

The Future group now has five listed entities handling different retail functions. Future Retail runs the popular hypermarket Big Bazaar in addition to fbb (apparel), EasyDay (convenience stores) and Food Hall (food retail).

Biyani said the group plans to have 10,000 outlets of its small store format Easyday.

It operates 1,300-1,400 stores at present and he said the company is trying to add around 2-3 stores a day.

"Except for Nilgiris, which is 80 stores, all are owned and operated by us. We believe this will be our fastest model for growth...We want them (customers) to frequent our stores 150 times a year," he said.

First Published:Feb 27, 2019 11:27 AM IST