German retailer Metro says it is revamping its strategy in India to meet customer needs.

It says it is adopting ‘multi-specialisation’ which will see the retailer open smaller stores of around 50,000 sqft each with 8000-10,000 SKUs. That’s far smaller than its previous stores with sizes of more than 125,000 sqft that stock more than 15,000 products.

“In India, we are slowly moving from a generalist wholesaler to a multi-specialist wholesaler. The assortment in our existing stores will become more and more specialist, to cater precisely to what our customer base needs,” said a company’s spokesperson.

He added that the Indian market is very different from the global market, hence, the decision to adapt the model.

From its beginning 10 years ago, Metro now has 15 stores across India, nine of which are large formats. It is taking cautious expansion and is working with three-four contingency plans in every step it takes.