The owners of Easy Day stores, Bharati Retail has plans to double the count of its stores by end 2010, taking the number of its Easy Day supermarkets to 125 from 60 and Easy Day Market hypermarts to 13 from then existing six. Until now Bharti Retail has stayed confined to the regions across Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan and the new store openings will only be in North India. However, as per a company spokesman, the Company has countrywide plans in another five years with an investment of $2.5bil to add about 10 mil sqft of retail space. Bharati Retail had signed an equal JV with Wal-Mart in 2007, with an eye on India’s $375bil retail market that is growing at an impressive 13-14% annually, with the organized sector comprising a meager 10% at $30mil. Raj Jain, MD and CEO of Bharti Wal-Mart has credited the softening of real-estate prices and positive response from the two partners for acceleration in expansion plans. In the current buoyant season, the other organized retail players in the country like Germany’s Metro Cash & Carry, Khet-Se Agriproduce India, a JV of Tata Chemicals and Ireland's Total Produce Plc, RPG Group’s Spencer’s Retail are all ready with fresh expansion plans.