These are the biggest grocery retail brands in India by number of stores
The Indian $900 billion annual retail market is expected to swell to $1.3 trillion in the next five to seven years. Food and grocery is the largest component of India’s retail business and the market in 2020 was estimated to be $573 billion. By 2025 it will grow to $852 billion, according to a Statista report.
The following are the biggest grocery retail brands in India by number of stores :
Patanjali
Patanjali is one of India’s largest operators of brick-and-mortar stores with outlets numbering to about 6,000 stores nationwide. However, all the stores are operated by franchisees. Patanjali currently operates four formats of retail stores: grocery chain Mega Stores, pharmacy-cum-grocery stores of Chikitsalaya; Arogya Kendra and then the rural version of Gramin Arogya Kendra.
The Mega Stores are in the range of 2,000-10,000 sq. ft and they sell everything from Patanjali-branded FMCG products to Ayurvedic medicines stocking Patanjali’s all 6,000 stock-keeping units (SKUs). Chikitsalaya format is in the range of 1,000 sq. ft and the format stocks FMCG and pharmacy and they have medical representatives to advise people on Ayurvedic medicines. Gramin Arogya Kendra are dotted across rural India and are mostly of around 100-200 sq. ft in size.
Canteen Store Department (CSD)
The Canteen Store Department or CSD was established by the Defence Ministry in 1948 to distribute daily use items to a fraternity of 13.5 million armed forces personnel, ex-servicemen and their families. The Department works closely with more than 500 suppliers across the country for the supply of the range of products seen on URC (Unit Run Canteens) shelves and at select trade outlets. CSD operates about 4,000 Stores across India which makes it one of the biggest in terms of grocery retail store chains in the country.
CSD’s operations today include a portfolio of 4500 products which are sourced from 650 companies including multi-nationals and leading Indian companies. CSD sells food and groceries, household items, liquor, watches, stationery and even cars.
Reliance Fresh
Incorporated in 2006 Reliance Fresh is a chain of grocery stores owned by Reliance Retail Ventures Limited which is a subsidiary of Reliance Group. There are more than 2,700 grocery stores operated by Reliance Retail which sell 200 metric tonnes of fruit and 300 metric tonnes of vegetables every day according to the company’s website.
In the financial year 2023, Reliance Retail had a revenue of Rs. 260,364 crores ($ 31.7 billion) and a profit of 9,181 crores ($ 1.1 billion). As of today, Reliance Retail has a total network of more than 18,500 stores across 7,000 urban and rural cities in India and 780 million daily footfall. Reliance Retail opened over 3,000 stores in the financial year 2022-23 according to the company’s annual report.
More Retail
Founded by the Aditya Birla Group, More Retail is a food and grocery company that ventured into the market in 2007 with the acquisition of “Trinethra Super Retail”. The business expanded under the name of “More Retail”.
It is currently jointly owned by Amazon and Samara Capital. More currently has 877 supermarkets and 40 hypermarts across Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamilnadu, Kerala, NCR, Punjab, West Bengal, Odisha and Maharashtra according to the brand’s LinkedIn page. The company reported a revenue of Rs. 4,507 crores and a net profit of Rs. 851 crores in the financial year 2023 according to its annual report.
DMart
Founded in May 2002 by prominent stock broker Radhakishan Damani, DMart is a chain of hypermarkets. The first DMart store was opened in Powai, Mumbai and today the brand is available in 336 locations across India.
The revenue of the company has grown exponentially from Rs. 23,787 crores in the financial year 2021 to 41,833 crores in the financial year 2023. Dmart is present across 12 states in India which includes Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Telangana, Chhattisgarh, NCR, Tamil Nadu, Punjab and Rajasthan.
