D-Mart Retail
Ball bearing trader, stockbroker, stock market investor…Radha Kishan Damani has donned many hats in a long career.
In his latest avatar, he’s a retailer, and is the promoter of D-Mart, one of India’s most profitable retail chains. After raking in the moolah in the stock market during the ’80s and ’90s, Damani suddenly quit after the crash of 2001. Over the next few years he focused on his other passion: retail. He slowly built D-Mart into a chain, and it now has 60 stores across Maharashtra, Karnataka, Gujarat
and Andhra Pradesh. At a time when the Birlas (More), Mukesh Ambani (Reliance) and Kishore Biyani (Future) are struggling to get the retail recipe right, Damani seems to have perfected it. His model is simple and differs from that of the bigger players. One, he doesn’t go to upmarket malls to set up outlets; dense residential complexes is where D-Mart prefers to plant its flag. Two, Damani buys his own real estate rather than leaving the business to the whims of owners who can hike rents at will. Three, D-Mart keeps the store size small, stocking only fast-selling products. This reduces write-offs on clogged inventory. Lastly, D-Mart pays its vendors within two days unlike other retailers, who pay after 15-30 days. So vendors give discounts to D-Mart for prompt payment and these discounts are passed on to buyers, improving footfalls and customer loyalty. On a turnover of Rs 1,100 crore, D-Mart made a profit of Rs 21 crore in FY11. Damani now wants to take D-Mart pan-India, but at his own pace. For him, profitability comes before scalability. That approach has made D-Mart the brightest star on the retail horizon in India.
