$5-m Superstore for Bangalore

Valdel Group, a new division of the M.S.Ramaiah Group, which has multiple interests in the areas of engineering and construction services, information technology and retail, plans to open a retail supercentre and a customer contact centre in Bangalore as part of its entry into the retail and BPO sectors.

Valdel Group chairman M.R. Jayaram said at a press conference here on Tuesday that the retail supercentre in south Bangalore will absorb an initial investment outlay of $5 million under the management of its retail arm, the Valdel Retail.

The contact and transaction processing centre on an investment of $2 million is being planned under Valdel’s BPO foray, M.J.Shantharaam Managing Director, Valdel, said.

The BPO venture will focus on the telecom, financial services and retail verticals.

The announcements were made against the backdrop of the MS Ramaiah Group now consolidating its business interests – Valdel Engineers and Constructors (formerly John Brown Technologies), AmSoft Information Services and Valdel Retail (SunMart Pvt. Ltd.) – under a single holding company, the Valdel Group.

This is post their acquisition by M.R.Jayaram and M.J.Shantharaam. The three companies together have a staff strength of over 1000 people.

“We are keen to retain the identity of AmSoft, our IT software and services business which employs over 100 people, under the new consolidated entity of Valdel. We see an active role for AmSoft in the outsourcing revolution ahead”, Jayaram said.

Valdel has projected total revenues of Rs.170 crore by 2005 from the present Rs.25 crore.