Supermarket chain DMart set to enter Delhi

NEW DELHI: DMart, one of the country’s largest supermarket chains, is set to enter Delhi, a move that will help billionaire founder Radhakishan Damani widen the brand’s footprint outside of the western and southern Indian markets.
The parent company of DMart—Mumbai-based Avenue Supermarts Ltd—has taken about 50,000 sq ft of space in east Delhi’s Karkadrooma court area for its first outlet in the national capital, a person familiar with the development told ET. Another person said, “They are scouting for space for 4-5 stores in Delhi NCR.”

Neville Noronha, managing director of Avenue Supermarts, declined to comment.

Avenue Supermarts operate about 200 supermarket stores mainly in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Telangana, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. In the north, DMart operates stores in Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh, and Punjab.

“In Delhi, supermarket operators like DMart can do a store every six kilometres. That is kind of capacity here,” said Munish Baldev, chief executive of real estate consultancy JS Martin. “The problem is the qualitative and affordable places are not available. There is a lot of demand, but supply is not there in Delhi.”

A recent report by brokerage firm ICICI Securities said DMart opened seven outlets in the third quarter ending December.

“More importantly, average size of 67,000 sq ft for new stores (versus 34,000 sq ft company average) augurs well for long-term revenue growth as well as margin expansion,” the ICICI Securities report said.

Shares of Avenue Supermarts have rallied 31% so far this year, adding about Rs 36,000 crore in market capitalisation and making founder Damani the country’s second-richest person after Mukesh Ambani with a net worth of $17.8 billion.