BPCL bazaar set to enter town

The scheme is a part of BPCL’s mega plan of focussing on retail business. It intends to upgrade its retail outlets but in various phases. The plan envisages facilities including non-fuel offerings which will be added at the retail outlets and one such facility is the C-Store.

According to BPCL sources in Mumbai, “We plan to provide C-Store facilities at a number of retail outlets in Pune and are in the process of evaluating the potential for C-Store at these locations.” With 39 BPCL retail outlets located in Pune, the oil company is still in the process of studying various options before earmarking them or identifying which ones have been selected.

Although the investment cost for each C-Store would cost around Rs 6-8 lakh, in Pune the monetary investment made at a particular site would be commensurate with the size as well as the trading potential of the C-Store at that site. The factors that BPCL would consider while setting up the C-Store would be the space availability, traffic flow, the location of the outlet whether residential or business or highway as well as the purchasing power of consumers in that area.

The merchandise to be retained would be ready to eat and ready to cook items and will be priced at the market retail price or less with no premium charged whatsoever. However, the product-mix would vary depending on the location and size of the outlet. BPCL plans to popularise these C-Stores by having regular campaigns in association with the manufacturers of the products sold in the C-Store to attract customers to the store.

However, BPCL does not have any plans to open C-Stores on the Mumbai-Pune highway but depending upon the potential at each of the retail outlets and the level of investment needed, select outlets are being modernised.