The government has allocated Rs. 100 crore for the board, which will focus on improving farming techniques, making farmers export-ready, and promoting investment in food processing. Bihar, which contributes nearly 90% of India’s makhana production, has long faced challenges due to inadequate food processing infrastructure and export facilities. The absence of a cargo terminal at any of the state’s airports has further hindered direct exports.

Makhana cultivation is primarily concentrated in nine districts—Darbhanga, Madhubani, Purnea, Katihar, Saharsa, Supaul, Araria, Kishanganj, and Sitamarhi. Traditional farming methods are labor-intensive and yield lower output, but the introduction of high-yield varieties like Swarna Vaidehi and Sabour Makhana-1 has demonstrated potential for increased production. The Makhana Board aims to facilitate the adoption of these advanced varieties and provide necessary support to farmers.

Additionally, the Centre has proposed new tariff lines for makhana and rice under the Customs Tariff Act, 1975, which will be implemented from May 1. These classifications are expected to streamline trade and benefit the sector.

As part of the broader Purvodaya initiative, the government has also announced the establishment of a National Institute of Food Technology, Entrepreneurship, and Management in Bihar. This institution will play a crucial role in advancing food processing activities across the Eastern region, fostering skill development, entrepreneurship, and employment opportunities.

With these measures, the government aims to ensure sustainable growth in makhana production while empowering farmers, strengthening market access, and boosting Bihar’s agricultural economy.

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Export performance in India and economic growth is interrelated because of the older historical importance of entrepreneurship in the country. The business acumen in India runs deep in the annals of history where India was a hub for trading activities and commercial centers were highly developed. There are numerous communities in India where entrepreneurial genes and risk-taking abilities are very prominent. This background outlines the specifics of modern economic activity and the development of new ideas.

The current scenario reveals that the Indian startup ecosystem has evolved in the past few years with three generation waves of entrepreneurial activities. Every wave contains the different types of businesses and ecosystems which have been built  under the impacts of social, regulatory, technological, economic, and cultural contexts. Out of the mentioned waves, the current wave is significantly notable due to the B2B models and deep technology and intellectual Property based innovations. Gradually, startups are presenting their products and services in a specific field with global perspectives in an attempt to solve intricate problems and target the global market.

ExportersIndia.com is another progressive leader involved in the B2B business. ExportersIndia.com is one of the largest B2B marketplaces where buyers from across the globe come to source products from Indian exporters. This has become the hub through which firms get access to the international market for exposure, contacts, and business relationships for service provision, product marketing, and sales, amongst others.

Over 60K active startups today run in India in a country that is charting to becomethe third-largest startup base globally – and operate across sectors like fintech, ed- tech, SaaS. These government schemes such as Startup India and Digital India have great utility in this growth where funding and some physical infrastructure are of paramount importance.

By 2023, the internet user base is likely to reach over 850 million in India which can turn out to be one of the biggest domestic markets in the world and point to representation of international ambitions. A few examples include Ola Electric, Freshworks, and Zomato are the examples of how Indian startups are looking globally and ready to carve a niche for themselves on the global map. Based on the experience of these companies, Indian startups are ready to become the leaders of the progress in technologies in the world, if they will receive the governmental support and access to the funds for the development.

It was found that Indian startups’ competitive advantage is in improving efficiency and innovation through technology and sustainability. Its factors include environmental, societal, and fiscal variables. This involves taking into account Environmental, societal as well as fiscal factors. To take the real-life example, the exporters must lean to sustainable manufacturing, waste minimization and supply chain efficiencies for cutting emissions. Considering sustainability as a core concept, Indian startups are able to increase their competitive advantage and attract the global market that focuses on sustainable approaches.

Furthermore, it should also be noted that the performance of the export sector depends on both national and international conditions. The performance of India in exporting its goods and services to other countries is influenced by major aspects within its domestic economy and globally, these include; performance in ease of doing business and other global trade agreements. Thus, the export strategy can make India’s exporters achieve sustenance, development, and networking for individual firms and the overall economy, technology development, and international partnership and cooperation.

The evolution of the Indian startup ecosystem from the environment that gave birth to idea to the one that is nurturing some of the world’s most innovative startups is a fascinating one. This is an unceasing story of innovation and spearheaded by policy mechanisms and most importantly, a qualified population. The Indian government has been very active in supporting the ecosystem for the startup through its programs like Startup India in this transformation. These initiatives enable startups to arrive at the necessary resources, and knowledge as well as financial backing they need in order to incite and grow.

In addition, currently, there are increasing numbers of technological ventures in India which show that the markets become more specialized and competitive. Most new ventures are now featuring the creation of intellectual property (IP) and coming up with innovative high technologies that are relevant to the world market. This is an evident trend with the market bearing the capacity in contributing to the home economy as well as carving a niche in the global market.

One of the prominent features of this evolution type is the factor of technology in increasing the productivity and success rates of organizations. Today’s Indian startups are applying such technologies as AI, machine learning technologies, blockchain technology, IoT technologies, etc. Thus, these technologies are not only assisting startups to find solutions to complicated issues but also allowing them to level the playing field in the global market.

For example, in the fintech sector, the startups are coming up with solutions which focus on opening access to basic financial services, creating efficient financial solutions to conduct transactions and also enhancing security. In the ed-tech industry, what business people are developing are platforms that provide good education to the students within and outside their region. Likewise, in the SaaS segment, Indian startup companies are now providing software solutions that can be demanded by business entities globally.

The best expositions to the information are such points: Today, Indian startups are successfully participating in the global market, and it indicates the increase of the country’s role in foreign trade. The expanding businesses across the borders in India are positively happening to the country by boosting its export figure and also further strengthening the country’s image as a hub of innovation and start-ups. The following are some of the factors that make it possible to extend the operations of the company across the globe; Current and favorable trade relations in global markets help in opening new markets of Indian services and products.

Hence, it can be concluded that India’s economic growth over the past decade has been significantly fuelled by the dynamic expansion of its export sector, particularly through the rise of the Indian startup ecosystem. Indian startups’ successful participation in the global market enhances the country’s role in foreign trade, boosts export figures, and solidifies India’s reputation as a hub of innovation and entrepreneurship.

The post The Evolution of Exporters in India: From Startups to Industry Leaders appeared first on Business of Food.

With a current earnings runrate of Rs. 3 crore per month, Food Square has attracted a bevy of high networth investors including none other than Salman Khan himself. The brand has now set its sights on expanding its brand footprint in Mumbai and beyond

The launch of Food Square in September 2023 made splashy headlines all over the media.One headline on the website of anational news channel read: IIT and Kingston graduates lease Salman Khan’s commercial property to open a gourmet supermarket. Moreheadlines, in Rashomon variation, followed. A leading publication announced: Foodhall out, FoodSquare in! Salman Khan to get Rs. 1 crore per month for his 4-Floor Santacruz property.

The monthly rental itself left many rolling their eyes. The four-storyed 25,000 square-foot property, bought in 2012 by Salman Khan for a reported sum of Rs. 120 crore is locatedon Linking Road, which connects two of Mumbai’s ritziest neighborhoods – Bandra West and Santacruz – a veritable shopping Mecca for the affluent and well-heeled classes. In July 2017, the actor leased out the property to Future Group owned Foodhall for 5 years and for a monthly rental starting at Rs. 90 lakh.

By 2023, Foodhall was singing its swan song as it found itself staring at a financial precipice. It decided to fold up operations following the debt-related travails of its parent company. With its eyes on the exit ramps, Foodhall approached one of its leading vendors – LandCraft Agro – to take over the business. But the negotiations got stuck over some legal issues and the deal fell through. Eventually, Foodhall shuttered the store, which left the doors open for a new occupant to hang its shingle.

Rise of a New Guard in Gourmet Retailing

With Foodhall going without even a whimper, Food Square arrived with a bang. But the new brand was virtually a greenhorn and new kid on the block. And for someone just getting off the starting blocks and stepping straightaway into the shoes of a veritable emeriti in India’s food and grocery establishment seemed too good to be true. But even if it seemed like a high-end wager likely to go wrong, one thing stood loud and clear: A new guard was rising to take an old guard’s place.

“Honestly, we simply acted on the opportunities that were presented to us. We just took the right decision and have moved on to where we are today,” muses Co-founder Mayank Gupta on how Food Square came to replace its iconic predecessor. He says when Foodhall promoters first proposed to them to take over the business, it threw them for a loop at the time.

That hunch seems to have played out well. Nearly six months into operations, Food Square has seen several high net worth investors open up their Rolodex quicker than for any other new retailer entering the business.

“Our property landlord Salman Khan and his family have come on board as investors and are partners now in the business,” informs Mayank. Very recently, Food Square also received an undisclosed funding round from other notable investors, including supermodels Ujjwala Raut and Vartika Singh, designer Payal Singhal, digital creator Simone Khambatta, and luxury fashion house Purple Style Labs, among other individual angel investors.

Operating under the legal name of Landcraft Retail, Food Square in Bandra West, Mumbai is spread across 25,000 square feet in a four-storyed commercial property, which makes it the largest gourmet store in the country. “Landcraft Retail is an extension of our farming business under LandCraft Agro, which operates the brand name Trueganic and through which we’ve supplied fresh vegetables and fruits to over 200 supermarkets and gourmet stores across West and South India. Expanding into retail was a natural progression for us,” says Lalit Jhawar, the other Co-founder of Food Square.

As a premier gourmet store, Food Square features an in-house bakery, an exclusive truffle section, an extensive selection of over 350 cheese varieties, and a café. Aiming to provide a world- class shopping experience focused on offline retail, this swanky new gourmet destination also boasts of a spice mill, a salad bar, as well as a specialty pet store.

Aquaponic Farming to Gourmet Retailing

Mayank and Lalit started their farming operations in 2019, and the two operate one of the largest aquaponic farms in India. Aquaponic farming combines aquaculture (raising fish) and hydroponics (growing plants without soil) in a symbiotic system. During the process, no pesticides and herbicides are used, making the fruits and vegetables healthier and safer.

The objective behind establishing this fruit and vegetable plantation was to cultivate premium-quality produce for export to discerning markets such as Singapore and Dubai where Mayank had lived and worked before. However, as fate would have it, the business was started just three months before Covid threw a curveball.

By March 2020, the world had shut down, which made it impossible for the two budding entrepreneurs to travel overseas and meet customers for their produce. Finding their export business going off the rails, Mayank and Lalit stepped out onto the limb to change the directional arrow of the business and flip the script.

The duo made a pivot and started to look for retailers within the country who would value their high quality produce. After knocking at the doors of several retailers, a few doors flew open, which heralded their entry into the retailing business. Thanks to their genuinely pristine produce quality, high-end retailers where shoppers come looking for quality and fresh produce began showing interest.

Nature’s Basket started buying first, and was soon followed by the likes of Foodhall, Spencer’s, Star Bazaar, Ratnadeep, QMart, and Namdhari’s. Before long, the trickle had turned into a tide and within a year their business had become a top supplier of fruits and vegetables in the west and south Indian markets. At its peak, their farming business was supplying to about some 250 leading supermarkets in those regions, and earning an impressive monthly revenue of over Rs. 80 lakh.

In 2023, Foodhall vacated the property it had leased from Salman Khan. The departure of Foodhall offered a perfectly teed up opportunity for Mayank and Lalit to pull a power move and launch their own gourmet store at the marquee site. They seized upon the opportunity by soft launching the store in September 2023. Branded as Food Square, the store went fully operational in November and stands out today like a Faberge gem in Mumbai’s gourmet retailing firmament.

Retailing Insights from Farm Business

Mayank recounts how four years of running and managing operations of their farm to retail venture gave them a ring side view into the retailing business. “Ever since our days in the export business, when we supplied fresh produce to retailers in Singapore and Dubai, we noticed a lot of gaps in India compared to how high quality food is retailed in other countries that have a similar per capita income. And we believe that Indian consumers today living in affluent and high income pockets of the country need an enhanced gourmet retailing experience.”

Mayank’s friend turned business partner Lalit echoes his companion’s thoughts: “Supplying fresh fruits and vegetables to top retailers offered us a rich seam of on-the-ground insights and understanding into the world of food and grocery retailing. We came to intimately understand their strengths, their weaknesses, and how these businesses performed in various pockets of the country. By 2022, we had become the biggest supplier to a lot of these retailers and Foodhall was among them. Our operations also gave us a lot of back-end data, which helped strengthen our belief that in pockets of affluence in the country, there are enough consumers wanting a very enlightened, high quality experience and high quality product.”

When the moment opened for Mayank and Lalit to launch Food Square, both felt sure they had the chops for it. “We were already in this business for the last four years and we had gained loads of insights. We understood which high-end supermarket, in which territory of which city had high volume and low volume sales across different periods. We analyzed seasonal trends, as well as the weekly fluctuations in fruit and vegetable purchases, among other factors,” states Lalit.

From Friendship to Entrepreneurship

Mayank and Lalit share both history and chemistry going back to their college days. “Both of us first met at the London School of Economics where we had gone to study summer school courses in Finance and Business. That was back in 2010.

After that, thanks to our proximity – Lalit lived with his family in Powai, in a Hiranandani township, and I was in IIT Bombay, in the Powai campus – our friendship grew and blossomed. Today, we are more than friends. We are like brothers. We are like family. And since 2019, we have been working full time together,” recounts Mayank.

While Mayank completed his Bachelor’s of Technology and Master’s of Technology from IIT Bombay, Lalit is a graduate in Entrepreneurship and International Business Management from Kingston University, London. As is obvious, both come with high end creds, besides being well traveled and well-read folks.

Their initial success in hooking up with top retailers for fresh produce encouraged Mayank and Lalit to enlist and train over 150 farmers in the region in aquaponic and hydroponic farming. Currently, their farming business has over 100 acres of land under aquaponic and hydroponic cultivation. The operations produce more than 40 varieties of vegetables and fruits, which are sold to top supermarkets under the brand name Trueganic. Using aquaponic technology and enclosed, climate-controlled greenhouse systems, the farms produce the highest quality greens, herbs, and fruits such as kale, chives, lettuce, spinach, dragon fruit, avocado, mango, among others.

A Gastronomic Universe

Mayank and Lalit’s agricultural enterprise oversees a network of collection and distribution hubs, and operates an efficient supply chain. The business also has its own setup within various APMC markets in Mumbai and a few other cities.

“Being into full-time farming since 2019, we are connected with various agri-related government agencies and farmer producer organizations (FPOs) around the country. This way, we get access to very unique products that we can stock and store. For example, at Food Square, we have about 300 varieties of Indian rice. Also, we have all kinds of millets that one can think of. We also offer a wide range of food items that would be familiar to our grandparents if they lived in a rural area. So, we have all of these Indian products and, at the same time, we also have all the best products from around the world. This fact is enshrined in Food Square’s tagline: World Food Market,” asserts Mayank.

Indeed, Food Square’s gargantuan product expanse would knock out even the most fastidious food connoisseur.  As a premier retailer of gourmet foods, Food Square sells and stocks some 16,000 unique products and SKUs. That’s a lot of products to stock and keep in one outlet.

While managing such a diverse inventory within a single outlet presents logistical challenges, yet Mayank and Lalit’s expertise in farming, supply chain management, and market insights enables Food Square to effectively balance variety and volume.

“Drawing from our experience in supplying to supermarkets and understanding product demand dynamics, we strategically stock a wide array of both mainstream and niche items without compromising on space for fast-moving products. This approach allows us to cater to diverse consumer preferences while maintaining efficient inventory management practices,” shares Mayank.

Culinary Delights and Flavors from Around the World

In the business of gourmet retailing, variety and top- notch product quality isn’t everything. It’s the only thing. True to its tagline, Food Square maintains a focused edge in providing customers with an opportunity to experience a culinary journey spanning the globe.

“When you step inside, you’re not just getting access to imported goods; you’re also exploring the diverse culinary treasures of India. We have products and offerings from all 28 states and 8 union territories by way of classic and nouvelle cuisines, ingredients, and a wealth of flavors and products waiting to be discovered. So, whether it’s sampling delicacies from distant lands or savoring the rich diversity of our own country, Food Square is a perfect destination for your taste buds,” points out Lalit.

A significant portion of the brand’s sales comprises imported cheese, a prominent category among its customers, particularly in Bandra West. “Many of our patrons are frequent international travelers accustomed to the culinary experiences and quality associated with specific brands. They seek to replicate these experiences locally, driving demand for imported products,” says Mayank.

Another notable category is imported fruits and vegetables, often favored by visiting NRIs who prioritize quality over price. Despite the availability of local produce, some fruits like strawberries are preferred year-round, necessitating imports during the Indian off-season. Hence, catering to such preferences is essential.

“Additionally, our offerings extend to specialty items such as truffles, pasta, exotic hot sauces, and unique seasonings. These products cater to the discerning tastes of our clientele, reflecting their preferences for premium and distinctive culinary experiences sourced from abroad,” notes Mayank.

For a retailer whose product basket comprises a significant portion of overseas food products, maintaining an excellent relationship with foreign suppliers, export promotion councils, and trade and marketing agencies of countries abroad is a sine qua non of the business. As a top-end gourmet retailer, Food Square’s relationship and engagement with overseas collaborators has been fair dinkum. As wags say, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. For instance, Food Square has been selling Australian avocados long before they were officially launched in India last month.

“In the past, we’ve already done such events with the Australian embassy and with a few others. Since 25,000 sq.ft. is a very capacious space to have under one roof and, that too, at a most coveted location, we get a lot of requests from foreign trade councils and embassies to do launch events. Some recent events held at our store were the promotion of Australian macadamias and American pecan nuts, among others. We are now working on a few more partnerships to get a few more launches and cuisines, and products from more countries,”informs Mayank.

Other than food, Food Square has a non-food section that houses categories like home and personal care, besides also selling some high-end cutlery, silverware and crockery.

“About 30% to 40% of our sales is generated from international and imported food, about 40% to 50% comes from the Indian food, and about 15% from non-food products,” informs Lalit.

Shaping Taste and Culinary Trends

One retailing Rubicon that Food Square does not want to cross is the private label business. With their current status limited to a single store, Mayank and Lalit believe that private label strategies are more suitable for businesses with significant volumes. Given their projected scale, they don’t anticipate achieving the necessary volume to justify the economies of scale associated with large-scale private labeling.

Instead, their focus remains on optimizing merchandising, assortment, and overall shopping experience. The emphasis is on sourcing high-quality products, both domestically and internationally, and to curate the best selection for their stores. “We have no plans to venture into manufacturing or private labeling and prefer to concentrate our efforts on enhancing our product offerings and retail experience,” says Lalit.

To bring fresh dynamism to its repertoire of products, Food Square actively promotes artisanal Indie brands. “We promote them massively and  our store has a dedicated section called Artisanal Indie Brands. Our vision is to serve as a launch pad for exceptional, high-quality brands and products within the country. Unlike venturing into manufacturing or white-labeling of products, our focus remains on sourcing and showcasing top-tier offerings,” says Lalit.

Laying out the case for promoting young and promising brands in more detail, Lalit explains that Food Square’s Bandra West location marks it out as an early adopter market within the country, often serving as a trendsetter for new concepts and consumer preferences. The locale attracts a diverse and discerning clientele, including many trend-conscious consumers who are quick to embrace innovations, whether in food, fashion, or other domains. Given its proximity to Bollywood, Bandra West holds an overweening influence in shaping fashion trends across Mumbai and beyond.

Citing an example, he says that Food Square introduced an upcoming but promising cream cheese brand about three months ago. “High quality cream cheese is not manufactured on scale in India and the brand we introduced found ready takers among top bakers who visit our store to pick up lots of niche baking ingredients. Now, the brand has been able to attract the interest of a top baker and chef and they may enter into a partnership together. There are other similar examples where brands debuting at our store have been able to acquire market catchet and make it to the big league.”

Small-batch and craft offerings are at the core of innovation. Sophisticated consumers that are Food Square’s core clientele come looking for more craft and less mass-produced products. Food Square offers artisanal and Indie brands and upcoming new brands identified as having potential, an opportunity to feature on their shelves without imposing any listing fees for an initial period. This duration serves as an experimental phase, allowing these brands togauge market reception and consumer interest.

However, should a brand fail to resonate with their clientele during this trial period, Food Square prioritizes the efficient utilization of its valuable shelf space. As retailers, optimizing the assortment of products available to their customers is paramount, necessitating careful curation and management of their inventory.

“In our assessment, a quarter, or approximately 90 days, represents an adequate time frame for a food brand to ascertain its market viability, particularly within the discerning community of Bandra. Should a product fail to gain traction within this period,we have to discontinue its presence on our shelves. Conversely, successful sales within this time frame warrant our commitment to featuring the brand across multiple categories within our store. Such decisions are made with careful consideration and a focus on optimizing our offerings,” shares Mayank.

He confides that their approach to promoting young and progressive brands is influenced by their own entrepreneurial journey, where they emerged from humble beginnings to establish their presence in the market. “We understand firsthand the significance of landing an opportunity, as we once did when selling high-quality vegetables to upscale retailers in 2020. Their willingness to collaborate was a critical element that shaped our journey, and we remain indebted to them for their support. It is with this spirit of gratitude that we extend opportunities to aspiring product makers, entrepreneurs, chefs, and producers, recognizing the transformative impact of a single opportunity.”

Commitment to Quality and Customer Centricity

As a young retailer on the make, Food Square’s primary theme, its force motrice since its inception, is to provide the best value for money. “We grow and sell some of the best spinach you can find in the country. It’s true, our spinach comes at a higher price but the product quality is many order of magnitude higher than what you can get from a street vendor, a regular spinach seller, or even some supermarkets. Our spinach is cleaned and ready to cook. There’s no need for cleaning, disinfecting, or cutting off muddy or insect-infested parts. So, what we’re really emphasizing is that when you spend your money with us, you’re getting real value,” avers Mayank.

Enhancing the qualitative aspects of the shopping experience at Food Square is another area where Mayank and Lalit have been successful in keeping the ante high. “We make sure to always have a wide variety of fruits and vegetables available for our customers. However, initially, the design of our FnV section, which featured great looking furniture, unintentionally obscured some of our products,” shares Mayank.

“My team, within the first month of the launch realized ki product kam dikh raha hai, furniture zaada dikh raha hai. I mean, product bechna hai not furniture. And then, we immediately took out some furniture, which enhanced the visibility of all our crates so that the product appeared to really pop out of that, and sales automatically grew,” describes Mayank.

To raise the bar of customer service and experience, Food Square consistently solicits feedback from consumers and guests. A recurring theme in this feedback was the observation that while it offered a comprehensive range of food items, it lacked products in the non-food categories such as home and personal care, as well as kitchen essentials like cutlery and crockery. This constructive criticism prompted the retailer to experiment with expanding its product range to include these categories.

“The introduction of these new categories proved to be successful, and they have since become a significant aspect of our offerings Thus, in addition to our extensive selection of food items, we now stock and sell a range of non-food products, positioning ourselves as a one-stop destination for customers seeking both quality food and essential household items,” points out Lalit.

Another initiative that Food Square has taken to eliminate customer pain points, elevate customer service, and create a differentiated, personalized customer experience, has gone down very well with its customer base. Adding an element of convenience for its customers mostly hailing from the high table of Mumbai society, Food Square provides free valet service and parking to all guests. “That’s like an extra service we provide because we want to offer a five-star retail environment for our customers where they can walk into the store and feel comfortable and at ease. It’s something massively appreciated by our guests because the service allows them a stress-free visit to the store where they can shop at their leisure,” says Lalit.

While Food Square caters to the upper-middle-class and wealthy segments and comes with a high-end market positioning, it has been careful to ensure that the look, feel, and aura of the store is not intimidating. “We have made sure that the store does not alienate any consumer who wants to come in. All care has been taken to make the store warm and welcoming. After all, food is all about hospitality, warmth, and genuine connections. And that’s basically our brand’s positioning,” adds Lalit.

For a newbie retailer that joined the big clubby replacing Foodhall, which had gold-lettered credentials for being at the highest end of the food retailing spectrum, it is not uncommon for shoppers to compare the two entities.

“We have a variety of imported products, but we also focus on high-quality items made and distributed right here in our country. This mix sets us apart from the erstwhile Foodhall. We want our customers to feel at home, not pressured to buy only expensive imports. We offer a blend of both, catering to everyone’s tastes and budgets,” points out Lalit.

“Foodhall was a massive brand in India with a fanatic following and a large fan base. But the one feedback that we have been getting from a lot of people that used to shop at Foodhall is how our store occupying the same premise and area feels and appears a lot more roomy, airy, more inviting and with a distinctive ambience that is kind of pre-echo of what the word ‘cool luxury’ means,” says Mayank.

That is something that both Mayank and Lalit feel really proud about as they have been involved in every aspect of store design, layout, and color schemes, which culminated in the creation of Food Square. As an engineer by training, Mayank views retail as a perpetual optimization challenge. “It’s a continuous process of refining every aspect of the store and business operations. At Foodsquare, we are committed to this ongoing optimization endeavor, implementing daily adjustments to merchandising, assortment, and layout, among other factors, to enhance the overall customer experience and operational efficiency.”

Data analysis plays a significant role in Food Square’s operations and guides the decisions and strategies to work on. “By examining this data, we gain valuable insights into the effectiveness of our initiatives and in identifying areas of success and opportunities for improvement. This allows us to promptly implement corrective measures as needed,” says Mayank.

Elaborating further, Lalit explains: “It’s really about understanding what our customers want and need, and then being ready to help them. We collect data at different points, like when they talk to our sales staff or cashier at the exit counter. We also observe what they do inside the store, which sections they go to, and which products they choose. This helps us understand our customers better, so we can serve them better.”

Mayank views Retail as a combination of both science and art. “While a significant portion — approximately 80-90% — can be attributed to scientific methodologies, there remains a vital artistic aspect, comprising around 10-20%. This blend acknowledges the psychological nuances involved in consumer behavior and the importance of enticing customers with offerings of genuine value.”

Mayank and Lalit admit that there is a steep learning curve ahead even as both spend about 10-12 hours every day either at the store or the head office atop the same complex. “We have entered this field with ambitions to change a lot of things about how gourmet retailing is done in India. Our vision is to innovate, redefine industry standards, and set new benchmarks for excellence in the process,” says Mayank.

To spur and foster creativity and to bounce the ball off of any new idea within the organization, Food Square supports a very flat structure. Even the junior most person on the shop floor enjoys the freedom to approach the founders and the leadership team any time. “Everyone is encouraged to propose new ideas, thoughts, and experiments whenever they arise. This inclusive approach engenders a culture of creativity and innovation within our organization. Each week, we collectively evaluate the merits and drawbacks of these ideas, determining whether they warrant further exploration and action. This structured process ensures that promising concepts are thoroughly considered and implemented to drive our business forward,” reveals Lalit.

Adding further to Lalit’s strain of explanation, Mayank adds: “We come and belong to a startup culture and that is what we are promoting inside Food Square. A very flat non-structure that allows fostering of creativity, ideas and knowledge and training up and down the organization.”

Revenue and Plans for the Future

In November 2023, when Food Square went fully operational, it recorded sales of Rs. 2 crore. Fast forward to April 2024, and the sales figure has climbed to Rs. 3 crore, indicating an uptrend in revenue generation. But is it also a positive indicator of the company’s performance and potential for further expansion?

Mayank explains that they utilized two key data points for benchmarking the sales performance. By comparing Food Square’s sales figures to that of Foodhall, both pre and post- Covid, they were able to glean valuable insights into consumer behavior shifts. The most notable trend has been the emergence of home deliveries and quick commerce, which has significantly altered consumer preferences and diverted many towards the convenience of online shopping. By adapting to these shifts and aligning their strategies accordingly, Mayank and Lait aim to position Food Square for continued success in the evolving market landscape.

“Our analysis revealed that Food Square has surpassed Food Hall’s post-Covid sales figures. Currently, our focus is on striving to achieve pre- Covid sales levels of Foodhall. This milestone, when attained, would mark a significant achievement for us,” says Mayank.

He adds that in the first quarter since its launch, Food Square served over 30,000 customers and is now poised for faster growth. “Our sights are now set on amassing more than 200,000 customers and we aim to reach an annual revenue milestone of Rs. 300 crore in the next three years besides adding over 20,000 SKUs across our stores.”

Lalit and Mayank plan to open at least 10 more Food Square stores in the next three to five years in Mumbai and beyond. “Our goal is to be the go-to place for anyone in the country looking for something new and exciting in food. We want to offer everything the world has to offer, all in one place, and become the best food retailer in the country,” says Mayank.

He sees strong tailwinds that will help gourmet stores like Food Square to expand and flourish. “People in our country are spending money on cool experiences and special stuff. There’s also a big increase in luxury spending, and more folks are getting into healthy food too. These trends will act like a strong wind pushing us forward and help us on our way. And being vertically integrated with our farming business, we can do this exceptionally well compared to a lot of the other retailers out there.”

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Its unique franchise model has helped turn aspiring rural entrepreneurs into successful supermarket owners, besides creating a nurturing ecosystem for supporting new retail  ventures and opening up new entrepreneurial avenues for rural  communities.

Its much-acclaimed franchise model has earned hearty mart widespread kudos, nationally and globally.  Apart from its food and grocery retail franchise business, hearty mart has also diversified into other sectors of the food business and has successfully created and built 9 micro-enterprises by  partnering with micro entrepreneurs of villages.

How many grocery chains in the country earn the stripes to make it to a study project at India’s top and most prestigious business school? Well, Gujarat-based Hearty Mart has not only been a case study at IIM Ahmedabad and other leading Management institutes, its business model has also been taught globally at the European Case Clearing House for many years now.

The Hearty Mart chain, which operates its flagship company-owned store in Ahmedabad and manages another 15 franchised stores in the villages of central, south, and north Gujarat under the Hearty Mart brand, has earned national and international recognition for offering a modern retail experience to the bottom-of-the-pyramid consumers in semi-urban and rural markets across the State since 2004.

The story of Hearty Mart  has also been covered by marquee international magazines like Forbes and Fortune, and leading Indian publications like Open magazine, The Economic Times, New Indian Express, Hindu BusinessLine, and others.

How the Journey Began

Hearty Mart’s storied retail journey started with a 1600 sq.ft. store at Vishala Circle in the Juhapura neighborhood of Ahmedabad, in February 2004. But the location and timing seemed hardly conducive to the birth of a new business.

Following the bloody 2002 riots in Godhra, Juhapura had turned into a haven for Muslim refugees from all over the city and neighboring districts. The population had swelled to about 5 lakh, making it the largest Muslim neighborhood in Gujarat.

It was against this backdrop that Hearty Mart launched its first store, which was envisioned as a mini-supermarket for grocery and daily-need products and, in the aftermath of the riots, it came to be seen as a beacon of post-riot harmony and progress.

The shop offered discounted prices, which were lapped up by the residents in the locality. At the same time, it offered a shopping experience that was modern and contemporary but without frills and yet fulfilled the desires and aspirations of people who missed out on big-brand organized retail.

“With the aim of bringing convenience to the locality, the Hearty Mart maiden retail venture was modeled as an ideal neighborhood convenience store whose value proposition of ‘Sabse Khaas Ghar ke Paas’ offered the promise of being a one-stop-solution for meeting the daily needs of groceries, cosmetics, food grains and other basic merchandise,” says Nadeem Jafri, Founder & Chief Mentor, Hearty Mart

Meanwhile, the influx of a large Muslim population into Juhapura created a booming demand for real estate in the locality, with the added promise of imminent future development.  But the Juhapura neighborhood, despite the value appreciation of its real-estate, still did not have a proper organized retail store, which could provide the convenience of purchase to its residents.

Invoking an expression that refers to new and untapped markets as ‘blue oceans’, Jafri says that the decision to open Hearty Mart’s first outlet in Juhapura was a Blue Ocean strategy.  Jafri’s acumen lay in spotting this gap and in identifying the opportunity to start an organized food and grocery store in the fastest developing area within Juhapura.

“Although there were other superstores such as Reliance Fresh and Big Bazaar in Ahmedabad, none had ventured into restive Juhapura,” recalls Jafri. The mention of Big Bazaar lights up a nostalgic link and an old cherished memory in Jafri. After completing his MBA from IMS Indore in 1998, Jafri worked in the media and advertising businesses for eight years. The idea to get into entrepreneurship with food retailing was born out of his frequent visits to a Big Bazaar outlet near his office

“It was 2002 and I was working for an advertising agency whose office was located inside the Phoenix Mill Compound at Parel, Mumbai. Just opposite our office stood a Big Bazaar store. I used to visit the store regularly and enjoyed my shopping experience there. The merchandise on display left me very impressed. This was my first experience with an organized retail store of that magnitude and the impressions they left catalyzed my own deep desires to venture into Modern Trade retail,” remembers Jafri.

Two years on, Jafri quit his job to launch his own food & grocery retail business with a capital of Rs. 62.5 lakh, which he raised in partnership with a few friends in the real estate and hotel industry.

Hardships and Travails of Food & Grocery Business

However, Jafri soon realized how tough it was for a newbie entrepreneur to run and sustain a food retail business on a profitable basis.Hearty Mart used every trick in the book – from customer loyalty programs and home-delivery services – to raise its bottom line, but progress was very slow. It required sales of Rs. 3.75 lakh a month to break even, and it was proving to be a stretch.

To support and finance his new business, Jafri turned to his family and friends for help. As someone who hails from Gujarat and is a native resident of Ahmedabad, it was natural for Jafri to look up to his relatively prosperous Cheliya Muslim community to support the venture. It helped that his uncle was the community head of the sect, making it relatively easier for Jafri to raise the capital from friends and relatives

“The initial five years of my retail journey were really tough as the store did not break even during this period. But disappointments and failures are a part of the entrepreneurial journey. As an entrepreneur, I was required to remain calm through this testing time,” reminisces Jafri.

He left the day-to-day running of the store to his colleagues and took up a job selling space at Times of India and later, joined Grey Worldwide, an advertising company where he worked in an earlier stint. Jafri also started teaching advertising and organized retail at business schools such as Proton Business School, NRIBM, and Idea Foundation, in and around his hometown Ahmedabad

He taught for six years in different colleges and B-Schools from 2006 to 2011. This experience, apart from buoying the financial survival of his debut business, also proved to be enriching and groomed him into becoming a mentor. It gave him a chance to interact and mentor young students and he came to realize that he was good at mentoring. “I took this learning to Hearty Mart and helped my team with the necessary mentoring and groomed them. I found a suitable role for myself I groomed our top leadership in my set-up and they, in turn, groomed their subordinates further,” shares Jafri.

He attributes his success as a mentor to the support of the rural community he belongs to, which is into farming at the rural level and into the hotel/ restaurant business in cities. “I belong to the family of their spiritual head, and hence gaining their trust was easier for me. The mutual respect we have for each other – me and the community, has helped us grow together. They are ready to experiment on my ideas and take my advice positively and work on it to execute with perfection.

My exposure to the outside world in media, advertising and communication industry and their knowledge of the farming and food-grocery products has created a winning combination as they produce the best of products while I find the ways to create a brand out of those products.”

At the same time, the initial setback in business taught Jafri two things, which helped to shape his onward entrepreneurial journey. First, the experience of dealing with students made him a better mentor to his business team and, second, the failure at his store inspired Jafri and his team to think more innovatively and create a unique retail franchise model for the business.

How the Franchise Idea Became a Turning Point

“I feel that failure can act as a much-needed booster dose for would-be entrepreneurs. It can help ignite the fire in an entrepreneur and inspire him to do better,” says Jafri, recounting how, despite the continuing struggle to stabilize his business, he still went ahead and launched a retail franchise network, besides also foraying into the HoReCa segment

By 2007, the Juhapura store business had started showing signs of stabilizing, providing the impetus for Jafri and his team to launch their rural franchising concept. The concept was born out of the learnings that Jafri and his team gleaned from entering into an unexplored Juhapura and provided them with the insights and courage to target other unexplored areas of rural Gujarat.

Finally, the page turned, and Jafri’s Juhapura store broke even on the positive side of the ledger in 2009. Since then, it has kept growing 15-20% annually, pulling in over Rs. 3 crore in revenue in 2020. “Had we succeeded in earning profits straightaway, we would have remained a one-store venture without innovation,” feels Jafri.

“There are many aspiring entrepreneurs who would like to take up organized grocery retail as a business but feel handicapped to pursue their ambition. More importantly, the long-term strategy for growth in the retail industry is to have multiple stores. Even we wanted to expand in this manner but found that the lack of funds made it difficult. Hence, we came up with the innovative idea of expansion through franchise stores by tapping into the social network of rural community residing in villages,” says Jafri.

With the help of his team, comprising B-school graduates and senior partners at Hearty Mart, Jafri set up a Franchise Development Cell, whose objective was to provide a retail ecosystem to its franchises and work as a guiding force for them.

A Franchise Model for Rural Entrepreneurs

“With our franchise model, we train the entrepreneurs at our Juhapura supermarket, share with them the insights and knowledge of organized retail, and guide them to run their own franchise store at their respective villages. Creating entrepreneurs at a rural level with our franchise model and hand-holding and supporting them through our Franchise Development Cell makes for a unique business model at Hearty Mart,” states Jafri.

“Our vision can be best defined as: To touch the life of every Indian and provide him with the best merchandise that suits his lifestyle and to constantly work on opening up new entrepreneurial avenues for rural communities. We help the entrepreneurs with their franchise business as we believe that our growth would be reflected in their growth. We nurture them and train them and even invest in their companies to make them own a venture,” adds Jafri

In that sense, Hearty Mart works on an inclusive growth strategy. The social impact is that it generates entrepreneurs and promotes entrepreneurship at the rural level. Franchisees have to pay a one-time fee and a brand royalty under the Hearty Mart franchise model. “We take a fixed fee ranging from Rs. 5 lakh to 10 lakh, depending on the quantum of efforts we anticipate in developing the franchise. A recurring brand royalty of 0.5% on annual sales is also part of our license fee structure, points out Jafri.

On its part, Hearty Mart takes up the responsibility to do the store layouting, purchasing the inventory, training the managerial staff of the franchise in various aspects of organized retail such as usage of software, SKU building, among other things. It also monitors their data related to sale & purchase and guides them regularly on their inventory management decisions and promotional schemes on a periodic basis.

To design and execute the promotional strategies, the Hearty Mart team regularly visits franchise stores to sew up tailor-made offers and schemes that suits the needs of the respective franchises and their customers. It has introduced smart card and loyalty programs for key customers of the stores besides also launching monthly promotional discounts on select products in the stores.

At the same time, Hearty Mart expects its franchise stores to follow faithfully the guidelines of its franchise document and be honest in their dealings with their customers and the mother brand. “Basically, it is their store and they need to work on the topline and bottom-line even though we are always there to support and handhold them as and when needed,” says Jafri.

Distributorship for certain brands is also managed by Hearty Mart through which it purchases merchandising stock centrally and sends it across to its 16 franchisees. “The rural franchisee network under the Hearty Mart model has thrived because it is backed by a robust ecosystem. We have created an ecosystem that handholds our rural franchisees, helps them procure products profitably and guides them in running their store efficiently,” shares Jafri.

Success Recipe Behind the Franchise Model

Right from its first franchise store in 2007, which opened in Ilol Talav village near Himmatnagar district, Hearty Mart has been working closely with rural retailers as their franchise partners. As on date, Hearty Mart operates a chain of 15 franchise stores at the taluka level, semi-urban centres and in rural villages.

That the first franchise store at Ilol village still continues to operate even 17 years after hitching its star to Hearty Mart’s wagon attests to the success and credibility of the latter’s franchise model.  “The parameter of success isn’t always the number of stores owned by a retail chain but about creating successful stores. Multiple loss-making stores, including those belonging to large retail networks, shut down regularly or risk closing down. We have witnessed many prominent food-grocery retail chains closing down their operations in the face of sustained losses,” observes Jafri.

On its part, Hearty Mart strives to work closely with its franchises to help them earn good profits. This unwavering belief that Hearty Mart’s own success is incumbent on the progress and performance of its franchises has resulted in most of the franchise stores doing good business in their respective villages and towns.

The Dholka franchise is yet another case of successful organic expansion under Hearty Mart. The store was set up in 2012 and in 2019, the franchise partner added one more store at a different location in Dholka. Another franchise, in Pimpodar village, added an additional floor to his shop in 2016.

“Our franchise supermarket owners have been very successful and happy in continuing their association with us. Our innovative model is discussed as a case study in premier B-Schools, including the IIM-A, and our business model is taught overseas for helping and handholding rural retailers with the right guidance and skills-set to become modern supermarket owners,” avers Jafri.

But of all the deserving recognition of Hearty Mart’s incredibly successful franchise model, he counts the book titled “Super Market for Rural Customers – A Study of Community Oriented Social Enterprise in Gujarat” published by The Academic Foundation as the most special and best acknowledgment so far.

It is a dedicated book on Hearty Mart written by two research professors – Subrata Dutta & Munish Alagh – of Sardar Patel Institute of Economic and Social Research (an ICSSR Institute), Ahmedabad.

They did a detailed research study on our business model. The US-based economist Dr. Abu Saleh Sharif has written a forward for the book. It is available online on The Academic Foundation website. ‘‘I consider this as the best accolade on our work so far, as it has the potential to motivate young entrepreneurs to study our business model, get inspired and strive to do something similar or better than what we could do,” says Jafri.

The result of the hard work it has put in to make its rural franchise model a success has won laurels for Hearty Mart and  has also paved the way for Hearty Mart’s entry into more villages in Gujarat. The retailers’ 15 franchise-operated stores in Gujarat’s rural market cover small towns and villages like Dholka, Ilol, Chhapi, Pipodar, Kakoshi, Vadnagar, Idar, and many more covers over 23,000 sq.ft. in retailing area

While Hearty Mart also has bigger stores spanning 1,000-2,500 sq.ft. to even 6,000+ sq.ft. in towns like Ahmedabad, Dholka and Sidhpur, most of its franchise outlets are smaller stores ranging from 300 to 550 sq.ft. in size depending on the demographic profile and real estate cost of the location. “A total investment of approximately Rs. 40-45 lakh is needed for opening a decent 1,000 sq. ft. store in a rural set-up. The net margin for the retailer is 7-8 per cent. This makes it a business of turnover. Typically, a 1,000 square feet store in a rural setup would take around three years to break even,” informs Jafri.

Another big difference is that Super Bazaar is an investor-backed franchisee, unlike Hearty Mart’s other supermarket franchises, which are owned and backed by rural retailers who invest in the shop and run it. The Super Bazaar franchise has the freedom to purchase the inventory from anywhere as per their liking and understanding and they need to only maintain the quality standard.

But unlike Hearty Mart’s other franchises, which are food-grocery convenience stores in a small size format ranging from 1,000 to 2,500 square feet, Super Bazaar has 6,000+ square feet of retail space, which has a food-court, a grocery shop, a lifestyle and apparel shop, a bakery and kids’ play area.

Hearty Mart calls it Super Bazaar model as ‘Freedom Model’ and it is run by Hearty Mart Marketing & Logistics, a subsidiary of Hearty Mart Enterprise. “We provide them with the entire inventory and we have placed managers to run the store under our guidance. We visit the outlet periodically to chalk out the future growth plans. Under the Super Bazaar. Freedom Model, we co-own the store along with the investors whereas other Hearty Mart franchisees, in most cases, are owned by the rural retailers and their partners who run the stores in their respective villages,” reveals Hearty Mart’s Group CEO and MD, Vajir Ali Momin.

Inventory and Merchandising

Being a food-grocery retail chain, Hearty Mart’s small convenience stores stock products from regional and local brands as well as those of leading brands like HUL and P&G, which occupy over 40% the shelf-space.

The product categories related to food, groceries, and beverages are the fastest-moving at Hearty Mart stores. The popular food categories include loose lentils and rice along with packaged spices and flavorings like coriander, cumin, and chili powder belonging to national and regional brands like Everest, Badshah, MDH, and Ramdev. In the villages, the more localized brands in the same product line, but with an economical pricing, are sold.

In beverages, regional teas compete with the might of the national players like Tata Tea and Lipton. Jivraj Tea, Wagh Bakri and Navkar are the few brands that fight tooth and nail with the established and multinational tea brands. Hindustan Unilever’s and Proctor & Gamble products in cosmetics, shampoos, dental care and hair care form a large part of other fast-moving categories at Hearty Mart

Managing the product inventory of stores is a critical element contributing to the success of Hearty Mart’s franchisee model. Inventory Management makes Hearty Mart stores different from other grocery chains in that it works more on area-specific inventory taking a completely customer-centric approach, which is based on the consumer and trade research of the proposed area of operation

“We conduct consumer survey of the buying patterns, particularly of fast-moving consumer products and food groceries, of people residing in the proposed location and take observational tours of competing stores located there to check the products/ brands available with them before we invest in the inventory for starting up a franchisee. This helps us in coming up with the right product inventory mix for the residents of the locality,” says Sabirhusen Momin – Retail & Franchise Head, Hearty Mart.

Most multi-locational chain of stores, either owned by an individual, corporate or a venture capitalist, have centralized purchase and inventory decisions. But at Hearty Mart chain of franchise stores, which have different store owners running different franchises at different locations, the inventory decisions are decentralized according to the needs of the specific store and the locality and, hence, the store inventory differs from store to store.

“The needs for products change every few kilometers in our country of diverse consumption tastes and culture. However, our in-house private brands are sold across our network of stores. The quantity and number of SKUs in each store might differ depending on the demand for these brands in that specific area but they are invariably sold through all our stores. You can say that our retail stores are known for providing convenience to our customers by offering them a wide range of products at an optimum price,” states Momin.

Diversification to Become Complete Food Company  

Apart from its food and grocery retail franchise business, Hearty Mart has also successfully diversified into other sectors of the food industry. It has successfully created and built 9 micro-enterprises by partnering with micro entrepreneurs of villages. These enterprises are into manufacturing of different product lines such as tea, bakery, atta, paper napkins, toiletries, spices and flavorings, among others.

All these businesses are part of the Hearty Mart brand companies, and the products manufactured by them are sold through its network of stores. The synergetic harnessing of the production skills and market development skills of different companies under the Hearty Mart Group has worked well for the Group as a whole and for its business partners, rural entrepreneurs, franchises and other stakeholders

One of Hearty Mart’s early initiatives to diversify and branch out into new sectors of the food business was taken in 2008 when it launched a wholesale business of food grocery and hotel supplies – Hearty Mart Enterprise Pvt. Ltd. The creation of Hearty Mart Enterprise came about as a successful meeting of minds between Jafri and Vazir Ali, who had started Ashish Enterprises – a HoReCa Supplier – with Hussain Abbas, another entrepreneur. Ali and Abbas proposed a merger and Jafri accepted on the condition that they would help build Hearty Mart Enterprise into a food company with interests in the entire farm-to-shelf value chain.

The backward integration paid off. Soon, HM Enterprise was throwing up cash, and its scale was helping Jafri stock Hearty Mart at much lower costs, thus offering increased margins. “The creation of HME was a milestone for our group as we merged Hearty Mart with Ashish Enterprise, a company already working into the HoReCa domain. Today, Hearty Mart Enterprise caters to more than 1,000 restaurants across Gujarat, Rajasthan and Maharashtra, and is known as an established HoReCa wholesale supplier in these markets,” says Jafri.

With the expansion in numbers and geographical outreach, the need to integrate the businesses to maintain uniformity of quality and service deliverables became essential. This led to the inception of Hearty Mart Marketing & Logistics in 2010, which was aimed at providing back-end support to the Hearty Mart franchise network by helping them in procuring products for their stores, at an economical price.

Like all supermarket chains, Hearty Mart’s success also lies in its ability to source products at low costs. The scale of purchases helps chains such as Big Bazaar and Reliance Fresh, or international ones like Walmart and Tesco. But the size and scope of Hearty Mart stores cannot bring in the cost advantage. Hearty Mart has gotten around the problem by integrating a wholesale supply business to the retail one. With the range of consumer and food products from Hearty Mart Enterprise at its disposal, Hearty Mart Marketing & Logistics entered into the wholesale business of these products.

Besides, it helped to connect HME and the franchises and in tapping the network of store owners, mom & pop kirana stores and retailers and also becoming a channel of distribution for Hearty Mart products as well as products from other brands. Hearty Mart Marketing & Logistics became an independent super-stockist and distributor for many outside brands like Cadbury and Crave Eatables, and also for the in-house brands introduced by Hearty Mart Enterprise

All these ventures opened up a window of new opportunities. One such opportunity gave birth to Hearty Mart Tea Packers, which launched a new brand of tea – Day Break Tea – and tapped onto the huge potential market of highway restaurants.

Under Hearty Mart Enterprise, the company launched its own private label brands – Chef Ki Pasand spices and masalas to cater to the hotel and restaurant industry; FMCG brands like ‘GoodTime’ spices and flavourings; ‘Zareef’ spices and masalas, and also ‘Khamir ATTA’ to cater to the retail market. In recent years, the Hearty Mart Group has also launched Hearty Mart Bakers Point, its in-house bakery products’ business, besides launching its own online store.

Technology Adoption

Hearty Mart, though being a predominantly rural chain of stores, has adopted technology with perfection. “Our franchises today understand the usage of data analytics in monitoring inventory-mix performance and consumer trends. And in order to further augment this process, we have implemented ERP solutions by investing in the centralized server at our office. The data thus collected at our server helps us in monitoring the overall store performance and devising customized product bundling strategies for different stores and other promotional schemes,” informs Jafri

With e-commerce and online grocery pulling ahead as a more convenient medium of shopping, Hearty Mart launched its online store www.heartymart.com/shop to widen its customer base and beef up its brand’s presence online.

For efficient billing and stock keeping, each store has installed point-of-sales software, which tracks the inventory movement and helps the store in-charge in identifying the slow-moving products. Such products can then be removed from the shelf and the process thus helps in refining the inventory mix further and making it more market-ready.

In order to bring the franchises on a common platform, Hearty Mart uses the Trello software application extensively to manage its meetings and for exchanging business ideas. All franchises are also equipped with hi-tech security systems that allow them to monitor their shop-floor behavior from anywhere at any given time. “We understand the value of e-commerce in today’s fast-changing consumer world and hence have started selling our products through prominent online marketplaces like Amazon and Flipkart and our own online shop www.heartymart.com/shop to reach out to our online customers effectively,” says Jafri.

Helping MSMEs & Local Brands

To pursue its objective of creating and building on the rural entrepreneurship ecosystem in right earnest, Hearty Mart has established a stellar track record of encouraging and supporting young and aspiring entrepreneurs, brands and suppliers

Its hand-holding efforts to nurture retailers in the rural parts and its liberal allocation of shelf space to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises lends enough credibility to the brand’s assertion of helping rural entrepreneurs

Jafri’s personal association in the capacity of a mentor with the CIIE-IIMA incubation centre and GUSEC-Gujarat University is helping many food-grocery start-ups from these centres to get access to Hearty Mart’s Juhapura store for product testing and other marketing activities. “If we see potential in their product quality and offerings, we help them place their products at our stores. There are a couple of ready-to-drink juice brands coming out of these incubation centres, which have been able to get shelf space at our Juhapura and Makarba stores, reveals Jafri.

Very recently, it gave space to a start-up perfume brand and also helped it with promotions. The brand is now being sold through all Hearty Mart stores. “These initiatives have definitely helped the Hearty Mart brand create and build its image as a rural and a startup- friendly brand,” affirms Jafri. Other than helping small local brands to mark their presence at its stores, Hearty Mart also actively collaborates with bigger, more established brands to build new categories and reach out to newer and wider customer base

On Brand-Retailer partnership, Jafri says that it is necessary for a retailer wishing to earn higher margins as it can create a win-win situation for both – the brand and its retail partner. A retailer is extra attentive to the brands whose exclusive rights have been given to him. In India, we saw the classic case of Xiaomi brand launched with an exclusive tie-up with Flipkart.”

Use of Innovative Retailing Concepts

Dwelling on the interesting concepts or innovations that Hearty Mart has introduced at its stores, Jafri says that his food and grocery retail customers prefer good quality products at an economical price. But they tend to avoid experimenting with unfamiliar, new brands or products, which they haven’t used in the past. This is where a bundling or a cross-bundling strategy helps to introduce new products on the shop-floor and create demand for the same

Jafri narrates a small incident that happened at his store where he introduced a premium brown bread with an introductory retail offer. The store staff waited for few days expecting to see good uptake of the product. But due to the pricing of the bread – it was a premium bread and prices were higher than the other breads available at the store – along with non-familiarity with the brand, the product movement was very slow.

“We introduced a product-bundling strategy and branded a section of the shelf as ‘Breakfast Basket’. Here, the new premium brown bread was bundled with a 100-gm pack of popular butter, a small pack of cheese spread/ cheese cubes and a bottle of jam/ ketchup. We priced it smartly, showcasing expected savings due to this bundling of products. This helped the premium brown bread make inroads in the consumer households of our regular customers and it eventually resulted in developing a regular demand for the product.”

Pointing to another case of innovative retailing at his store, Jafri recalls the period five years ago when demonetization was being implemented resulting in the sucking out of almost 86% of Indian currency from the market and leaving people to face a severe cash crunch

“We introduced an ‘ideal daily ration kart’ at Hearty Mart – it was a subsidized ration kart for our regular customers, which would help them purchase their daily ration at an economical price. The product mix of the daily ration kart was selected based on the purchase pattern of our customers, but it didn’t necessarily include established brands. The product mix was economical and offered lots of savings, which was the need of the hour then.

We created buzz around the ration kart by circulating the information amongst our customers via WhatsApp and SMS. We continued with this scheme for two months from November 2016 to January 2017. Not only was the concept lapped up, it also helped us in enhancing our image as a concerned and customer-friendly retailer with the customers showing their appreciation for this proactive step.”

In another example of the use of innovative retailing concepts, Hearty Mart keeps introducing regular promotional and seasonal merchandizing schemes based on the catchment and customer profile at its stores. For example, at its Juhapura store, which predominantly caters to Muslim customers, the holy month of Ramzan is the peak business period. “We come up with iftar packages and introduce discount schemes on beverages and dates. Every Ramzan, we introduce an ‘iftar kit’ by bundling dates, falooda mix and sharbat and create a dedicated shelf space for this special offering in our store,” says Sabir Momin

Like the Juhapura store, the rest of the franchisees that cater to all communities, roll out attractive discounts during the festive season of Diwali, Christmas, apart from Ramzan. “The organized food grocery stores main concern is to attract footfalls. Once the customer enters the store, the purchase is almost ensured. Hence, all the efforts of our promotional activities are aimed in the direction of luring customers to the store and maintaining a long-term relationship with them,” adds Momin.

Future Plans and Goals

Looking back at the road travelled so far and contemplating of the future, Jafri says that the ultimate goal is to take the Hearty Mart brand to the international level by manufacturing good quality Indian spices and other food & grocery products and exporting them overseas.

Hearty Mart’s Good Time Spices is already being exported to Canada and the US markets along with Dubai and the UK markets. “Though we haven’t been able to crack these markets fully due to Covid restrictions currently, the initial feedback and response from these markets on our products are encouraging. And we are looking forward to focus heavily on exports as we feel that we have the potential to grow and expand our export base,” says Jafri.

When asked to how he would like to describe his own strengths and best achievements as a food entrepreneur, Jafri ruminates: “Every individual is blessed with inherent strengths, which are unique to him. If he figures out this well in time, he can create a world of difference for himself and people associated with him. We fail because we try to follow or emulate others blindly without trying to understand our own strengths and the skills-set we possess.”

“Today, as a founder and chief mentor of Hearty Mart, I feel satisfied with my decision to have ventured into entrepreneurshipand sticking along. Any entrepreneur, with proper planning, innovative thinking, and an unflinching passion to succeed can create a new destiny not only for himself but also for the people associated with him,” concludes Jafri.

The post Hearty Mart: Retailer with a Rural Heart appeared first on Business of Food.

It was in 2012 that a certain 27-year-old Azim Mohammad returned to his hometown Cuttack after doing a three-year tour of duty, learning the tricks of the trade while interning with reputed and established grocers across the country. Like a devotee who cuts himself loose from worldly moorings and sets out in the search of true knowledge and enlightenment, Azim had decided to break out of his cocoon, leaving behind his job and other obligations.

Like the proverbial pilgrim’s progress, Azim’s quest to deep dive and plumb the depths of the retail trade saw him intern with some of the well-known meisters and acknowledged mavens of grocery trade in India — Pariwar Supermarket in Jalna, Maharashtra; Dhirajsons Supermarket in Surat, Gujarat;and Sarvodaya Store in Mumbai. Three years after embarking on a self-learning exercise, he came back to launch his own store — Metto Supermarket in Cuttack.

Feeding a passion born early

After completing his MBA, Azim got placed as an Assistant Manager, Commercials, in Reliance Communications. Almost two years into his first job, he got a call from his uncle who was into the real estate and hotel business, a traditional family preserve and stronghold. Members in Azim’s family have been among the oldest operators in this line of business in Odisha.

The uncle was looking to diversify his business and he asked Azim if he had any plans to suggest. “At the time this incident took place, I was reading a book called It Happened in India: The Story of Pantaloons, Big Bazaar, Central and the Great Indian Consumer, written by Kishore Biyani.

It’s the only book to have been penned by India’s greatest retail maverick — one to have achieved the heights of retail success.  The book talks about how Biyani as a businessman refused to fit into the traditional confines of his family business and ended up creating India’s most successful retail chain. It also introduced Azim to some fresh insights and perspectives on India’s retail market and its untapped potential.

“What left a deep imprint on reading this book was how India, upon entering the second decade of the second millennium, with a population of 100 crore plus people had only a tiny, wispy sliver of modern trade at just 3-4% compared with the US where a population of 30 crore had about 60% of its trade in the organized sector.”

”The book struck a chord, stirred up my subconscious, and raised some unbidden thoughts and ambitions, which coalesced with a sharp focus when my uncle asked for my opinion on a new business to diversify.” However, Azim’s opinion did meet his uncle’s confidence; but the nephew had already been sold on the idea of embracing the retail business ever since his MBA days in the college. “The initial inspiration had come when I was on the verge of completing my MBA. A guest faculty member from the US was visiting the institute who happened to be a senior executive at one of America’s most popular department store chain — Target. In his talk to the students, he narrated the evolution and powerful growth of the organized retail industry in the US and how, in comparison, India remained an untapped, virgin market for organized retail trade but one with an unlimited runway to grow and expand in the future.”

“It was a talk that channeled my inner entrepreneurial spirit and certainly got me hooked to the retail industry. Also, whenever I used to visit my home town during the breaks, I would chance upon many new stores like Reliance Fresh that were springing up in various parts of the city. All of it crystallized my interest in the retail industry,” he says.

While he took up a corporate job with Reliance after completing his MBA, Azim’s heart beat to the cadence and rhythms of the retail industry, which he wanted to be his true calling in life. Soon enough, Azim left his first job at Reliance and took up another — this time as a store manager — at a Reliance Fresh store in Krishna Nagar, New Delhi. “After spending about a year in my second job, I was caught up by the urge to start my own venture. My earlier interaction with my uncle had finally helped me to resolve my own feelings about what I wanted to do in life,” says Azim.

It was also a time, when he was in touch with some of the leading lights in grocery retail, including practicing retailers and retail consultants to help him guide forward on his retail journey. “One of them was Chetan Sangoi, a retail consultant who also operates his family-run Sarvodaya Supermarket in Mumbai. When I told him that I had decided to launch my own store, he encouraged me to knuckle down for my new project by acquiring more first-hand experience of the trade. I took this advice to heart and that’s how I set off on the journey to learn, intern and work with some of the established grocery retailers across the country,” shares Azim.

A retail dream takes shape

After an exciting, retail-knowledge fuelled tryst, Azim returned home to Cuttack with plans to open his own store. But he realized that his glimmering dreams would have to wait until the time all the clearances and permits for the new store were in place.

For a newbie entrepreneur impatient to alchemize his dreams into reality, Azim felt like Ahab chasing the white whale of bureaucratic corridors in pursuit of the elusive licenses. Recalling the phase, he says that there was a maelstrom of to-do activities before he could get the store off the ground. It involved time-consuming runarounds to procure different licenses from different departments.

“It took me almost three months running and chasing officials from the different departments to get all the licenses — trade license, food license, shop & establishment license, license for weights and measurements, packing license etc, with the fire license proving to be the biggest ordeal. For any wannabe entrepreneur, getting all the compliance certificates to meet this regulatory burden can be unnerving and very time consuming.”

Offering his take on what’s still a big entrepreneurial hurdle, Azim says that that though most regulations have been framed with good intent to serve the public good, there is much scope for streamlining the system, making the process less cumbersome, easing the compliance burden, and promoting the ease-of-doing business.

“In my opinion, a single-window clearance system for acquiring all the licenses can be the biggest service to the cause of entrepreneurship. Some of these licenses can be subsumed into a single regulation while a few can be done away with. You even have to acquire a license for playing music inside the store. Imagine, it was only a few years ago I learnt that we need to get an insecticides license for selling the common mosquito and bugs’ repellants in the store.”

After some three months of hard-scrabble chase and hunt, the licenses were in the bag. The moment had come when the rubber would finally meet the road. Metto Supermarket was started as a 2,500 sq.ft. store initially with an investment of Rs. 25 lakh. The size of the store was later extended to 4,500 sq.ft. after six months of the launch, and it is today spread across 6,400 sq.ft.

Azim says that the initial investment would have been higher but for the good fortune he had in getting his hands on some brand new electronics at a marked down rate as they were lying unsold at one of the malls that had closed down operations.

The store opened to a good public response with its location proving to be a major winning point. “From the days of my internship with the top retailers, the one thing that struck me loud and clear is that getting the footfalls is the biggest challenge for any new store. That’s why I decided on a location that was on a high street and just about 300-400 metres apart from two up-and-running Reliance Fresh stores. Also, I made sure that the store enjoyed a wide 120-foot frontage, which endowed it with good visibility and easy access,” says Azim.

To those new to the world of retail, it might seem like a counter-intuitive move to open a new-born store next to the maws of sinewy and hungry competitors. But for Azim, it was a deliberate decision with hard-nosed business logic.

“People in the area were already accustomed to buying from Reliance Fresh and were exposed to the modern trade concept. So, I did not have to worry about creating a new market or changing customers’ habits and shopping behavior, which can prove to be a big challenge for any retailer. Also, I did not have to do a market survey or research to understand the market potential of the location because that, in any case, must have been done by Reliance before opening their stores.”

However, despite the upsides, certain challenges came along the way too. “Cuttack is an old and a very retail-dense city dominated by kirana shops every few meters and where people are used to buying from shops on a credit basis. Also, smaller packs are more popular with the shoppers than their bigger units,” says Azim.

It took a few months of intense in-store interaction with the shoppers just to convince them that buying at a modern supermarket is a more pocket-friendly proposition and shoppers can indeed save more on their grocery budget by shopping at Metto than at the scattered kirana shops.

“By and by, through their own experience, people began believing that the store offered the biggest bang for their buck and it was a place for making value purchases. And, of course, they enjoyed the touch and feel experience and the freedom to choose from a wide range and variety of products,” says Iffat Jahan, the better half of Azim, who partners her husband in running the affairs of the supermarket chain.

Store format, USP and performance

Metto  has a portfolio of 5 supermarkets — 4 in Cuttack, and 1 in Bhubaneswar, as of 2022. Of the three stores, the first store at 6, 400 sq.ft. is the largest followed by a 2,800 sq.ft. store,  with the smallest at 850 sq.ft. 

In terms of revenue performance, for the month of July 2022, sales came in at Rs. 65 lakh for the 6,400 sq.ft. store and Rs. 35 lakh for the 2,800 sq.ft. store. “Our sales per sq.ft. Are decent and the sales numbers when broken down show that they are close to Rs. 1500 per sq.ft, which is considered to be a healthy figure,” says Azim.

“Our stores are getting good acceptance from the customers and that gives me the room to play around with new categories and products and experiment with new concepts to increase the sales further,” he adds. At the same time, he is honest to admit that there is plenty of room for Metto’s sales numbers to improve and grow bigger. “My market intelligence says that the two Reliance Fresh stores nearby are scoring higher  numbers which can largely be attributed to their higher marketing budget”.

“Thanks to their bigger marketing budget and a wider range of Fresh products at their stores, they are able to reach out to more customers and penetrate a higher number of households. As the Fresh stores also stock wet grocery and fruits and veggies, they attract greater footfalls as well,” feels Azim.

Azim says that it’s his conscious decision to not stock fruits and veggies because even though they fetch higher footfalls, the ROI on the category is not great. “From my experience as a store manager at Reliance Fresh, I know that the ROI in Fresh is not something to jump about. Also, the category is difficult to maintain because of the perishable nature of the products. Then there are problems around wastage, shrinkage and timely replenishment.”

Metto’s product mix is spread across more than 30 categories ranging from food and grocery to non-food and FMCG, crockery and kitchen ware, plastics and steel, toys and bags, among others. About 70% of the floor space is devoted to the supermarket categories, which includes food and grocery, and FMCG.

With a 70% sales contribution, the focus is more on food and grocery including products like oil and ghee, and masalas, which is also the store’s most profitable category, giving out 30-35% in profit margins. The chain is known for stocking an impressive range and variety of food and grocery products. “You can find four different varieties of jeera at our store, different varieties under individual pulses like tur, chana, moong, masur, etc, and a wide range of staples, cereals, snacks and ready-to-eat/cook products,” says Azim.

As far the customer segments are concerned, Metto stores cater to the masses with the focus more towards the lower and middle income consumers. Metto stores have built their brand identity around offering attractive discounts with a wide range and variety of products to choose from. “I am very much inspired by the D-Mart success story and how they have established their brand identity as a ‘people’s store’. Like D-Mart, Metto’s market positioning is of a discount store,” says Azim.

In keeping with its discount store positioning, Metto is known for its super-size 20% discount on all weekends and a regular 5% discount on all weekdays. For instance, Metto offers a 20% discount on food and grocery items on the 4th weekend of every month. Similarly, on the third weekend of the month, a 20% discount is extended to the category of masalas

On some select items like ghee and milk, which offer very tight margins, not more than a 2% discount is available. “Even when Reliance Fresh was offering a 2% discount back in 2014-15, we were offering 5%. Now that it has become a staple marketing offer, we have a very distinctive 20% discount on all Saturdays and Sundays on select categories on a rotational basis,” he adds.

Iffat, who dons the mantle of Metto’s Executive Director, joined Azim in his venture in 2019 after completing her B.Tech studies from National Institute of Technology, Karnataka. Since then she has been actively engaged in driving Operations, Marketing & Management of Metto. Iffat holds the opinion that a 20% discount on all grocery products is a value bonanza for the households. “There’s a huge rush on those days, which is 5-6 times more than on the regular days, and the stores have to be opened from 6 in the morning to close to midnight. People come in large numbers and buy bigger packs and SKUs to maximize the value of their purchase. Also, as these discounts are on the selling price and not on MRP, there is an even bigger gain for the customer.”

The mega discount offers on the weekends have helped Metto to burnish its image as a super-value store and strengthened its brand identity and visibility as a value retailer for the masses. “It’s now become a part of people’s general consciousness that one can get more value for the money by buying at Metto than at the nearby stores,” says Iffat.

Azim says that Metto is able to offer the super discounts because of its strong relationship with major suppliers. “Seeing the huge demand for their products due to the special offers, they are happy to let go of some of their own margin, which is anyway recompensed in a higher measure thanks to the huge bump in sales. At the same time, as a retailer, we also sacrifice our own profit margin for those special days and pass on the benefits to the consumer, who becomes our regular customer not just on the weekends but on the other days as well.”

Managing the business with lessons learnt from setbacks

Up until now, the growth journey of Metto supermarket has been completely organic. Could the pace of growth have been faster if it had looked beyond its own kitty for funding the expansion? “Rather than lean towards debt, I would take on board an equity partner or an investor who can join our journey of growth, and such a move is very much on the table,” says Azim.

He adds that Metto’s business expansion was pretty fast during the early days but a few things came unstuck that slowed down the momentum. “I had opened my second 4,500 sq.ft store in Bhubaneswar within two years of our first launch. However, the life of the second store was cut short and it folded just after a year of operations,” reveals Azim, noting that the failure set him back by some three years.

How could a gifted entrepreneur with the right credentials by way of educational background (MBA), business lineage (family members in business) and one who went all the way to cultivate and gather extra business moss and retailing nous by working with top retailers in the country go wrong only in his second gambit?

“Basically, I was blindsided by my ambition to move the flywheel too fast and too quickly and the wheels came off before reaching the top gear. Also, I could not handle the challenges of operating two different stores in different cities, and things soon spiraled out of my control to the extent that I had to shut down the store,” says Azim.

But what was the exact nature of those challenges? He confides that he paid a price for paying a rental that the sales could not support apart from not having a mature and seasoned team to trouble-shoot the erumpent problems. “To be honest, in my eagerness to grow and expand, and out of my fascination at the swift growth of the likes of Big Bazaar and Reliance Fresh, I got completely blindsided and tried to juggle my way around the basics that are at the core of retail science. My mentors had taught me that the rentals of any retail business should not exceed 2-3% of the sales generated; salaries should be within the 3-4% limit of the overall turnover; power consumption bills should not max out beyond 1-1.5% of the topline; keeping more than 5-10 suppliers for any category is not advisable.”

Azim admits that he broke the rules of the game and payed dearly for it. “To give an example, I had 40 manufacturers supplying for the biscuit category. It led to an inventory pile-up of unvendible products at the store. Apart from incurring a financial loss of about Rs. 30 lakh, the close down caused a lot of disappointment,” he says.

The setback pushed Azim to go back to the drawing board and review his actions with threadbare honesty. Some of the basic lessons that he had given a short shrift to came back to him with a burning force and incandescent clarity. “I resolved to assemble an efficient team comprising competent professionals and put proper systems and processes in place to oversee the different facets of the business. Also, I decided not to dabble in everything myself because that leads you to having too many irons in the fire and you can end up burning your fingers,” says Azim, adding that he was juggling various tasks from managing the purchasing orders to sales and marketing to presiding over all the meetings and taking various other decisions. “I had made myself indispensible to many parts of the business and it just didn’t work out.”

Today, the Metto chain is run by a smart and experienced team, which comprises Azim as Managing Director, Iffat as Executive Director, and other top managers from different departments as part of the company’s leadership management. There are seven departments, each with its own Head and key result areas (KRAs) to supervise and implement decisions to propel growth in line with the company’s policy and vision

“All departments — Managing Committee, HR, Accounts, R&D, Purchase, Operations, and Sales & Marketing — have their targets and goals to meet by taking a systematic approach and with the necessary systems and processes in place, and these are reviewed on a weekly basis. Since every operation is managed on an app, the managers are able to work toward meeting their KRAs and business goals, and there is clear visibility on execution and results,” informs Azim.

Technology and online prowess

Technology is now the oxygen that retail breathes. For any retailer and supermarket owner, operating without the tools of technology can become a virtual nightmare. “Technology tools and solutions are making life easier for the retailer, employees, and customers. You cannot scale-up your operations and you cannot even carry out your everyday routine functions without technological aid and support,” says Azim.

“Whether it’s billing, stock counting, raising POs, running loyalty programs or ensuring that all your systems are running in sync, one needs to fall back on technology. At the same time, it is imperative that retailers keep upgrading their stack of technology solutions in keeping with the emerging market exigencies and demands. For being up-to-speed with technology, retailers should invest 0.5% of their total annual sales on upgrading their technology solutions and IT systems, adds Azim.

On being asked about Metto’s digital capabilities, Iffat says that the supermarket chain has its own mobile app and its own web page for taking online orders. About 5-6% of all our orders come through this channel, which shows that online is yet to become an important part of our sales. For food and grocery, people still prefer visiting the stores and they like to touch and feel the product before deciding on a purchase.”

However, during the pandemic and the days of lockdown, Metto saw a sharp spike in online orders, to the tune of 60-70% of overall store sales. During the complete lockdown phase, it even crossed 90% , she reveals. Azim says that all the products and catalogues at Metto stores can be seen on the app and the web page, and a third-part service provider has been tasked with ensuring that the user interface is easy and smooth.

The road map to future

Turning his thoughts to the profit potential of the grocery business, Azim feels that that it depends on the person and how he is able to handle the business. “Today, in my ow neighborhood, I see lots of new supermarkets opening up, some of them by people who were not into any business earlier but have been professionals working for different industries. Clearly,

there must be something that is bringing them to dip their feet in this business. But whether they are able to run a profitable enterprise will depend on how faithfully and sincerely they adhere to the basic tenets of this business and play the game by the rule book. If you stick to the math and work by the numbers, profits are bound to come by and they will grow as you scale and multiply your business.

Once bitten, twice shy might be a cliché but for Azim the rules of retail are like the Rosetta stone he keeps going back to for shepherding his business. By acting on the basics of retail science and keeping those lessons at the heart of the business playbook, Azim now feels confident to move to newer chapters that will define Metto’s growth journey in the future.

“With all the structures, systems, and processes in place, it has now become very easy for us to move to next orbit of growth and scale-up the business fast. Once a location for a new store gets finalized, our team gets on into the action, taking up their specific functions and executing those as per the deadline. The reporting structure is such that it’s easy for me to spot any deviance and issues and fix them before they blow up,” explains Azim.

“Thanks to technology, and the way it has helped put in place systemic structures along all vital parts of our business, we no longer apprehend the problems associated earlier in operating stores across different cities and distant places. The need to have a physical personal presence to manage spatially distant stores has been taken care of by technology and stores can be managed as well remotely without physical proximity,” opines Iffat.

For the next couple of years at least, Metto’s growth and expansion would be centred around the cities of Cuttack and Bhubaneswar. “We want to grow in clusters and not in a scatter-shot way, so that we have an upperhand on the control,” says Iffat.

Azim adds that he expects his two new stores to rack up combined sales of Rs. 1.5 crore on a monthly basis for the first year of operations. ‘‘With future prospects looking promising, the company has already attracting investor attention and interest. Metto has already taken on board a private equity partner willing to finance and invest in building the company to 10 times its current size, signs off Azim.

This article was published in September Edition of Progressive Grocer 2022. To read more articles, subscribe to the magazine.

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