Spencer's Retail to buy Nature's Basket in $43 million deal

India`s Spencer`s Retail Ltd will buy upmarket grocery chain Nature`s Basket from Godrej Industries for 3 billion rupees ($42.76 million), the companies said on Friday. Spencer`s, a part of RP Sanjiv Goenka Group (RPG), runs its own grocery stores in parts of the country. The deal will give Spencer`s access to cities like Mumbai, Pune and Bengaluru through 36 stores of Nature`s Basket, said Shashwat Goenka, who leads RPG`s retail unit, in a statement.

Nature`s Basket competes with the likes of Future Retail Ltd owned Food Hall, as well as Alibaba Group backed online grocery company Bigbasket. "Nature`s Basket has a strong portfolio of private label brands which has huge traction with its consumers," Goenka said, adding that RPG would also benefit from the chain`s online grocery business. 

Spencer`s, which reported its results separately, made a net profit of 18.3 million rupees for the quarter ended March 31.