New Delhi - India's Tata Group's retail arm Trent announced Tuesday it was entering into a franchise agreement with British retailer Tesco to expand its hypermarket business in India.

The franchise agreement with Tesco would allow Trent to access the former's extensive retail expertise and technical capability to expand its Indian hypermarket business which operates under the name of Star Bazaar, a company press release said.

There are currently four Star Bazaar outlets, two in Mumbai and one each in Ahmedabad and Bangalore. Trent plans to expand this to 50 stores across Indian by 2013.

Trent would also source merchandise for the stores from Tesco's planned cash-and-carry business in India, the release said.

Tesco, which notched sales of 51.8 billion pounds in the year up to February 2008, sources over 170 million pounds worth of Indian products each year through its sourcing offices in New Delhi, Bangalore and Tirupur in Tamil Nadu. (dpa)