Kishore Biyani-owned retail company Future Group on Thursday said the Japanese-owned convenience chain 7-Eleven will open its first store in Mumbai.

In an interview to CNBC-TV18, Biyani, group chief executive officer said India is probably the huge market for 7-Eleven, "India is a young country. Young people want everything faster, nearer and a lot of convenient seeking is happening. So, this store is all about offering fresh fruits, beverages, confectionery, tobacco etc. and cafe will also be part of some stores."

Future Group today signed a pact to open the first store of 7-Eleven in India. The first 7-Eleven store is expected to open in 2019, which was brought to India by a master franchise route. The new master franchise plans to build new stores as well as convert existing stores to the 7-Eleven brand.

Further, he said, "It’s an interesting model. This model doesn’t exist in India and most of the stores will operate for 24 hours, wherever it is allowed."

Talking on the franchise model, Biyani said, “We are all bound by the agreement and it allows sub-franchising, but that is not in the first phase in any way. Our first phase is to perfect what we are doing, get success in the whole format as this is a new format in this country."

7-Eleven is the world's largest convenience store chain, starting in the US in 1927 and operates 66,000 stores in 17 countries.

First Published:Feb 28, 2019 4:05 PM IST