Future Group enters office products market with the acquisition of Officedge

January 20, 2007 (PRLEAP.COM) Business News
Future Office, a 100% subsidiary of Pantaloon Retail (India) Ltd, a part of Future Group, has announced the acquisition of the operations and management of Officedge, an online B2B office products company providing contract delivery services to corporate customers on a pan India basis. Providing a one-stop shop on a proprietary e-procurement solution, Officedge currently serves more than 80 large corporate customers across 6 cities offering close to 1200 office products.

Backed with an efficient supply chain infrastructure, it offers ease of ordering, next-day delivery and an ongoing ‘Savings Programs’, which can be rolled out on a national basis. Officedge was co-founded by two professionals turned entrepreneurs, Shailesh Karwa and Sharad Dalmia (previously consultants with TCS and Accenture respectively), after they felt an imminent need to organize the highly fragmented office products market in India.

This acquisition will give Future Office a headstart in the $10 billion office products market in India. Commenting on the acquisition, Mr. Rakesh Biyani, Director, Pantaloon Retail (India) Ltd, said…. “This acquisition fits in with our strategy of being present with different business formats to capture increased spend levels by customers. We have over the years pioneered many concepts where we interact with end customers. Officedge is a unique organization and gives us the necessary traction in a growing market”.

About Future Group:
Future Group is positioned to cater to the entire Indian consumption space. It operates through six verticals: Future Retail (encompassing all lines of retail business), Future Capital (financial products and services), Future Brands (all brands owned or managed by group companies), Future Space (management of retail real estate), Future Logistics (management of supply chain and distribution) and Future Media (development and management of retail media spaces). The group's flagship enterprise, Pantaloon Retail, is India's leading retail company with presence in food, fashion and footwear, home solutions and consumer electronics, books and music, health, wellness and beauty, general merchandise, communication products, E-tailing and leisure and entertainment. The company owns and manages multiple retail formats catering to a wide cross-section of the Indian society. Headquartered in Mumbai, the company operates through approx 4 million square feet of retail space, has over 100 stores across 30 cities in India and employs over 14,000 people. Future Group's vision is to, “deliver Everything, Everywhere, Every time to Every Indian Consumer in the most profitable manner.” One of the core values at Future Group is, ‘Indianess' and its corporate credo is – Rewrite rules, Retain values.