Customers line up at an Agora outlet of Rahimafrooz Superstores, which has entered the eighth year of its operation.Photo: STAR

Rahimafrooz Superstores, one of the leading retailers of food products in the country, wants to set up 20 new outlets in three years to expand its business with an eye for more revenue.
According to estimates of Rahimafrooz, total costs of the expansion may stand at about Tk 100 crore.
“We are looking to set up 20 more outlets in next three years in cities including Dhaka, Chittagong and Sylhet,” Niaz Rahim, managing director of Rahimafrooz Superstores Ltd, told The Daily Star yesterday.
“It's a volume-based business. The more we open outlets the more will be the sales as we will be able to serve more customers,” he said.
The company operating under the brand Agora began operations in 2001 to exploit the country's potential market for food items, including perishable goods.
Trading in food items is still dominated largely by small retailers in the kitchen markets, although about 70 small and big superstores entered in the market in the last couple of years. Three major retailers of food products -- Nandan, Meena Bazar and PQS -- are also operating in the market.
Before the entry of the Superstores, retail trade in food products used to take place mainly in the kitchen markets in unhygienic condition and run by small retailers, Rahim said.
“We had entered the business to offer consumers quality products in healthy environment,” he added.
Rahimafrooz Superstores Ltd, one of the nine subsidiaries of Rahimafrooz Group, now serves 7.79 million customers through its four retail outlets in Dhaka.
Rahim said the company registered an average annual growth of 25 percent in the number of customers as it offered quality products at fair prices and better services; this resulted in a continuous increase in sales.
“We have been able to win the trust of the consumers by ensuring quality of the products,” he said.
The company, according to its MD, posted increased sales results in the last couple of years. Its total sales grew by 20 percent to about Tk 1050 million in 2007-08 fiscal from about Tk 880 million a year ago.
Rahim, however, said the company is yet to record profits. “It's a low margin and high turnover business. We need to increase the volume of sale to ensure gains,” he said.
The company wants to integrate the supply chain for agri-produces with the aim to reduce middlemen in the supply chain, he said.