A Metro Cash & Carry outlet

German giant Metro Cash & Carry is poised to throw open its first city hub by the second quarter of 2008. This follows the stay order on construction at the Mukundapur site being vacated.

“We are delighted at this development and work should resume in full swing at the site by December,” Martin Dlouhy, managing director, Metro Cash & Carry India, said from Bangalore.

The company is committed to investing over 60 million Euros in Calcutta, despite the losses incurred due to the nine-month idling, Dlouhy underlined.

The stay order had been slapped in February by Alipore court following a dispute over compensation granted to the original inhabitants of the eight-acre plot on the EM Bypass leased to Metro Cash & Carry by the state government.

Heinrich O.E. Birr, the vice-president of international affairs of the Metro Group, had earlier said that the company, which notched up sales of 56.4 billion Euros last year, was confident Calcutta could accommodate “four large wholesale hubs”, entailing an investment of 60 million Euros.

Dlouhy echoed this bullishness and reiterated that the group, which was promised “fast-track clearances” by chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, has “high confidence” in the administration.

“While it’s unfortunate that we are behind the clock because of the court stay order, going forward, we are confident we can keep our promises in Calcutta. The second and third centres should come soon after the first is up and running,” Dlouhy stressed.

Metro Cash & Carry, “system leader worldwide in cash-and-carry wholesale distribution, servicing exclusively professional business consumers”, is a part of the Metro Group, which supplies channel management in 30 countries, employing 250,000 people.

The India operations head reiterated that Metro Cash & Carry would remain a B2B entity in the city.

“Wholesale business is our DNA and our core customer groups in Calcutta will be small traders, neighbourhood stores, hotels and restaurants, while we will help farmers with critical inputs,” he explained.