An Indian newspaper is reporting the five year old joint venture between Woolworths Australia and the industrial conglomerate Tata “has come apart”.
The joint venture, operating as Infiniti Retail, was established to run the Croma chain of electrical goods retail stores.
According to a story in the Economic Times, a sister publication to the Times of India, the initial agreement came to an end this month and Tata has no plans to renew it. The newspaper reports that Woolworths has been taken by surprise by the move as it did not view the agreement as time-bound.
The newspaper says Woolworths was seeking to extend the cooperation and “is understood to be exploring legal options” to prevent the partnership being axed.
Tata management have not commented on the situation and an email to Woolworths’ public relations team in Sydney drew a response which did not deny a dispute.
“We have many successful alliances in our business through which we have formed strong relationships with our partners, ranging from large international players to privately held family companies… We are committed to our India business, our alliance with the Tatas and our retail electronics relationship with Infiniti Retail,” Woolworths replied by email.
“As the exclusive alliance partner to Infiniti Retail, we have provided the retail knowledge and wholesale support that have helped them to establish and grow the Croma-branded national retail chain. We continue to supply Croma as we have in the past,” a spokesperson said via email.
Sources of the Economic Times said Croma had begun setting up independent warehouses in Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai.
“When the alliance was working, Infiniti Retail relied on the distribution centres and warehouses of Woolworths Wholesale (India), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Australian retailer, for supply to Croma stores.”
