Hyderabad: Riding on the wave of niche stores, city-based Urban Farm Fresh, which operates fresh vegetable and fruits chain of stores, has decided to set up about 25 more stores in Hyderabad surroundings and invest about Rs 5 crore in this regard. Later, it will explore Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam and Bengaluru, said its director Sachin Agarwal.
Each store will see an investment of about Rs 35 lakh. “The concept of supermarket is not new. However, not many have enough space and focus on fruits and vegetables. We are filling this gap,” he said. It is now picking fruits and vegetables from farmers from Moinabad, Shamshabad, Mulugu, Ontimamidi, Shankarpalli.
“These are freshly harvested. Our effort is to find customers for the farm produce and offer a good price to the farmers,” he said adding that it will also add organic products shortly. Dairy products, bakery items and healthy foods too will be available.
Covid has given a push to fruits and vegetable super markets and about 120 such outlets have come up in the city in the last one year, he said adding that Hyderabad can support about 800 such stores as demand for fruits and vegetables will continue to be steady. It already has stores at Khazaguda and Srinagar Colony.
Each store will have about three tonne stock and will be about 600 sqft. Inventory is managed using software that allows price changes in near real time, he said.