KOLKATA:For the Future Group, the Web is a classic case of once bitten, twice shy. The pioneer of organised retailing in India, Future Group CEO Kishore Biyani now says he wouldn’t invest or operate in the e-commerce space for at least two years.And he has his reasons: The group has already sunk Rs 300 crore on such ventures, and the industry’s mega ad blitz aside, it is reeling under losses. Having had its fill – and thrill – with e-commerce, India’s leading brick-and-mortar retailer now wants to focus all its energies and cash on the conventional business since that generates much higher returns. Biyani said none of the e-commerce firms in India is making money and losses are as much as their turnover.“It’s stupid to be in the online space. In lifestyle, the e-commerce industry revenue in India will be around Rs 2,500 crore, and losses too will be of equivalent amount. Mobile and electronics, too, do not make money online. Having burnt our fingers, we have decided to take a break of at least two years before even thinking anything remotely about online,” Biyani said.The Future Group has sunk around Rs 250 crore on FutureBazaar.com, which was the group’s first venture into online around 10 years ago: Other Web ventures were Big Bazaar Direct and the acquired entity Fab Furnish, which have already shut down.Biyani said the group will also not invest or focus on the omni-channel business model for its offline stores at the moment. Considered the father of modern retailing in India, Biyani is in the midst of rejigging his business, whereby the group will focus on core categories of fashion and food & grocery.It is also exiting the speciality retail formats – sell the furniture business HomeTown, shut sportswear arm Planet Sports and merge stores of electronics chain Ezone within supermarket BigBazaar.The group is now nursing ambitions to overtake rivals like Shoppers Stop and Lifestyle in the departmental chain business, where it operates with the Central chain of stores.“We will invest Rs 300 crore to set up 15 new Central stores this year to take the total store count to over 50. This will trigger our growth rate from this format to 40 per cent where the revenue is Rs 3,500 crore,” Biyani said.On the goods and services tax (GST), Biyani said the retailer is ready for it and prices will come down for a lot of packaged food and FMCG products.He said FMCG companies have promised compensation in case the retailers suffer any loss during the transition to GST. “Consumer electronics companies are yet to come up with any specific communication on older stock, especially those as old as one year. However, we expect something positive soon,” he said.