Deepak Parekh (left), chairman of HDFC, with Martin Dlouhy, MD of Metro Cash & Carry, in Mumbai on Wednesday. (Fotocorp)

Mumbai, May 7: Wholesale retailer Metro Cash and Carry is planning to open its outlet in Calcutta in the third quarter of this fiscal. It will be the company’s fifth store in the country.

The Calcutta store of Metro Cash and Carry is coming up on the southern stretch of the Eastern Metropolitan Bypass.

“The store should open by the July-September quarter this year,” Martin Dlouhy, managing director of Metro Cash and Carry India, said on the sidelines of the inauguration of the company’s outlet in Mumbai today.

Metro Cash and Carry has two stores in Bangalore and one in Hyderabad.

After opening the Calcutta store, the German wholesaler will go to Punjab.

“We are looking at India for long-term investment. We have identified 36 cities in the country with population of more than a million. Any of these cities can be our next destination. But after Calcutta, we are definitely looking at Punjab,” said James Scott, regional operating officer (Asia), Metro Cash and Carry International.

“Asia is an important growth region. We are present in five Asian countries and all represent tremendous opportunity along with great challenges. India has more than 1 billion consumers and a rapidly increasing middle class,” Scott added.

The company offers wholesale services to professional customers, hotels, restaurants and kirana stores. Clients have to get registered and are given customer cards.

“We do not follow any delivery model and only cash transactions are allowed,” said Dlouhy.

The company’s fourth store in Mumbai is its first multi-level store spread over 70,000 square feet in the central Mumbai suburb of Bhandup.

The company has hired around 300 local people for the store.

Metro Cash and Carry spends around Rs 80 crore on each store apart from the real estate cost.

The company feels the agriculture produce marketing committee (APMC) acts of different states are the main stumbling blocks for its growth in the country.