April 13, 2021
As Walmart gears up to battle Amazon for a bigger slice of the local market, its online e-commerce platform – Flipkart Online Services Pvt is joining forces with tycoon Gautam Adani’s conglomerate to help set up one of India’s largest logistics hubs and a data center.
The tie-up marks the entry of Adani, into the three-way fight for domination of the online shopping space, which is estimated to generate $200 billion in sales by 2026 — turbocharged by pandemic restrictions keeping people away from stores.
Adani Logistics Ltd, a unit of Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone Ltd, will build a 534,000-square-feet fulfillment center in its upcoming logistics hub at Mumbai and lease it to Flipkart, according to a joint statement Monday from the two companies.
Expected to be operational in the third quarter of 2022, this warehouse — roughly the size of 11 football fields — can store 10 million units of inventory, the firms said.
Bengaluru-based Flipkart will also develop its third data center at the AdaniConnecX facility in Chennai to help the e-commerce company keep its data within India, according to the statement.
AdaniConnecX Private Ltd is a joint venture between US’s EdgeConneX Inc and Adani Enterprises Limited, the conglomerate’s flagship listed unit.
The new fulfillment center being planned is likely to be larger in area than the ones operated by Amazon in India so far, underscoring the potential size of the market.
The partnership is another sign of Adani’s rising clout, his coal mining-to-data centers conglomerate has rapidly expanded and diversified across sectors, adding $24 billion to his net worth this year