Ratnadeep opens its first store outside its home base, in Bengaluru

Hyderabad-based food and grocery retailer, Ratnadeep Supermarket Pvt Ltd, which operates 54 stores in Telangana, opened its first store outside its home base in Bengaluru’s upmarket locality, Indiranagar on Thursday.

The ₹623 crore company plans to open five more stores in Bengaluru in Whitefield, HSR Layout, Kanakapura Road and Mahadevapura in the next 60 days. With aspirations to become a national supermarket chain, the company plans to open 45-50 stores at an average size of 4,000–4,500 sq ft with an investment allocation of ₹75 crore–₹80 crore in FY 2020. And plans to hire 900 employees, out of which 60 per cent will be women, ending this fiscal with a total headcount of 4,000 employees.

“Ratnadeep is neither a discount store nor a premium store, it is a ‘right pricing’ store which is enabled through local sourcing. All the in-store elements of our first 5,000 sq ft store in Bengaluru are focused on customer comfort and convenience, including spacious aisles, cool lighting, easy to spot signages, six checkout counters, etc and will be open for customers from 7am to 10.30 pm” Sandeep Agarwal, Managing Director, Ratnadeep Supermarket Pvt Ltd, told BusinessLine .

The store was set up at a capex of ₹2,500 per sq ft excluding stocks and offers an assortment of 11,000 SKUs across categories spanning breads, staples, fresh fruits and vegetables to frozen foods, dairy products, cleaning and toiletries, among others.

“We aim to have a total of 100 stores nationwide by 2020 and will fund the expansion through internal accruals and partially through institutional debt. In addition to opening five more stores in Bengaluru in the next two months, we are also opening 10-15 stores in Tier-II cities of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh” said Agarwal.

The company has three dedicated warehouses totalling 2 lakh sq feet in Medchal, Telangana and a 15,000 sq ft in Sarjapur, Bengaluru and are in the process of opening a second warehouse for fresh fruits and vegetables in Hoskote, Bengaluru. Currently, 12 per cent of the company’s ₹60 crore turnover per month comes from fresh fruits and vegetables and around 15 per cent of its turnover comes from its private label brand Excella for staples including cereals, dry fruits, pulses, whole and ground spices, rice, wheat flour etc.

Ratnadeep has grown its revenue from ₹390 crore in fiscal 2016-2017 to ₹623 crore last fiscal. “We expect to reach a turnover of ₹1,000 crore by the end of 2020 and plan to be a major national player in the next three years with 500 plus locations in multiple formats across the country” said Agarwal.

COMMENT NOW