Small Town Heroes

Recognising a niche for aspirational shopping outlets in small-town India, Lalit Agarwal has spearheaded rapid growth at V-Mart Retail.

- Daniel Herborn

V-Mart Retail has become such a mainstay of Indian value retail that it’s surprising to learn it was only founded in 2003. Chairman and Managing Director Lalit Agarwal opened the first store that year and, by 2013, V-Mart had undertaken an initial public offering. Today, it has expanded to more than 180 stores across 149 cities and 14 states, as well as made investor value accretion an integral part of its working. Lalit was one of the first to pioneer the concept of value retail chains in India, launching the first of its kind with partners and only leaving to start V-Mart as his own retail venture.

An important driver of this rapid expansion was Lalit successfully identifying a gap in the market for an aspirational retailer that offers quality apparel and accessories, along with fast-moving consumer goods and grocery staples, at budget prices. The strategy was to open standalone stores in Tier II and Tier III cities and smaller towns instead of India’s most populous cities.

Lalit had studied Commerce and Financial Management but, just as importantly, he knew the demographic from firsthand experience. “I grew up in a small town,” he says. “I knew what kind of market capabilities those towns had and what the customers wanted. I thought that, in India, there are a lot of such towns. The larger towns had a lot of organised retail, but in small towns, there was nothing to meet the expectations of the people.”

Lalit says V-Mart offers a new type of shopping experience for people in smaller population centres. “People in small towns want to look good and get the latest fashion, and while they don’t have a lot of money in their pockets, they see the same television channels as everyone else and they have the same aspirations.”