Amazon has invested $1.5 million (Rs. 10.5 Cr) in Indian food retail arm, Amazon Retail India.
The US-based retailer received the final nod from the Indian government in July 2017 to invest $500 million in India’s food retail space.
According to the news reported by Inc42, after facing certain delays due to government norms in February, Amazon Retail started its pilot services in Pune. It will now sell locally made and packaged food to consumers directly and is looking to completely roll out its food retailing business in the country within a quarter.
After Walmart reportedly backtracked from its plans to be directly involved in food retail in India after the acquisition of Flipkart, Amazon Retail now has the opportunity to create dominance in the brick and mortar space.
Recently, Kishore Biyani’s Future Group aims to enter the milk and dairy products delivery segment. Once the model is in place, other verticals such as fruits, vegetables, and groceries will be added.
So far, Amazon has been focussing on creating a solid last-mile delivery network to create an edge for itself. Earlier this year, it opened 15 fulfilment centres to create a specialised network for its hyperlocal grocery delivery business on Amazon Now.
With the latest addition, Amazon Now has 56 fulfilment centres across 13 states with a storage space of 13.5 Mn cubic feet. Of this, Amazon Now will have 120K cubic feet of space.