"Trinethra" founder eyes Rural Retail

Anjaneyulu Kakkera, Founder and Chairman of erstwhile Hyderabad-based "Trinethra supermarkets" chain, which ultimately got sold to Kumarmangalam Birla-owned Aditya Birla Retail, and recently got rechristened as `More,` has got busy with setting up a new retail business under the brand name of "Vah Magna." Vah Magna, which has already invested Rs. 120 crore, has created a network of 70 outlets occupying over 5 lakh sq. ft. of space. While, the bulk of its outlets are located in Andhra, it has two outlets in Maharashtra. Vah Magna, which registered a turnover of Rs. 120 crore in fiscal 2008, operates four retail formats comprising hypermarkets, cash-and-carry stores, FoodEx supermarkets, and recently launched Super Centre. The Super Centre format aggregates top brands of food, apparel, and home furnishing. The company is now looking at raising Rs. 100 crore for expansion and has already begun negotiating with private equity investors for the required funds. In the next 2 years, it will utilize these funds to expand its retail network in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Orissa and Tamil Nadu, and scale up the number of outlets to 300 increasing its space to 25 lakh sq. ft. Interestingly, Anjaneyulu Kakkera is also keen on exploiting the rural retail potential by extending its retail network to tier-IV towns, through franchise route. "Incomes in these towns have gone up significantly. There is good opportunity. We are going to open Magna stores in all the mandal (formerly taluk) headquarters," said Anjaneyulu Kakkera, in an interview to a newspaper. There are over 1,000 mandals in Andhra Pradesh. "We will rope in franchisees and offer our expertise and assistance. After the pilot, we will scale this up," added