The Bootstrappers
D Mart started as a side project
Radhakishan Damani is Rakesh Jhunjhunwala’s mentor. Jhunjhunwala cites him as his role model. Like Damani, the founder of D Mart, he is building an airlines business. Like Jhunjhunwala he is among India’s top investor. He had defeated Harshad Mehta twice.
In 2000 Radhakishan Damani stopped trading. He bought cheap land in Navi Mumbai and founded D Mart. He started the first store in 2003. For the next decade, there were only 23 stores. In 2016 he started expanding. Today, it operates more than 200 stores. With 1/8th stores as that of Future Retail, it generates as much revenue and more profit. D Mart owns most of its stores, and do not rent. The cluster approach of not expansing stores in all the states also helps them. They pay vendors upfront (day 11th vs the day 22nd). They procure the merchandise at the lowest prices. They pass on the discounts to the customers around the year.
As per ET:
For the past few years, the imagery of the Indian retail story has been the naked ambition of its biggest players — the building and breaking by Kishore Biyani, the try-again approach of Mukesh Ambani, the tripping of Walmart on its own toes. They have all grown. But they have also bled. Amid these upheavals, Damani’s retail chain, D-Mart, has grown consistently and profitably — and, in trademark Damani style, silently and unobtrusively.
He built the business the old school way, one step at a time. He studied every detail about building the business: store layout, billing, knowing vendors, reading about Sam Walton, knowing local markets. Furthermore, he focuses on three things: customers, vendors and employees. Rather than revenues and the valuation, it aims to be profitable. Local and small businesses can aim to be D Mart rather than a 10-minute grocery delivery service.
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