According to sources, Avenue Supermarts, which runs the DMart chain of stores in the country, has shut two outlets in the city across Mumbai, one at Mira Road and the other at Kalyan, in order to ramp up its e-commerce operations.
Moreover, the stores had been converted into online fulfilment centres, as per the company. This implies that no offline retail activity would be carried out in these locations. Even though company officials were quick to defend the move stating that there are alternate stores within a four-km radius, experts argue that the reason for the move was to take on Reliance in the e-commerce space.
Radhakishan Damani, the founder of DMart, the grocery chain that started two decades ago, has been quietly putting together a strategy that involves setting up more stores, increasing its e-commerce operations in a bid to compete with the e-commerce giant Reliance.
On the other hand, Reliance Industries and Reliance Retail Ventures Limited RRVL had earlier announced that a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (“ADIA”) will invest ₹5,512.50 crores into RRVL, a subsidiary of Reliance Industries. This investment values RRVL at a pre-money equity value of ₹4.285 lakh crore. ADIA’s investment will translate into a 1.20 per cent equity stake in RRVL on a fully diluted basis. With this investment, RRVL has raised ₹37,710 crores from leading global investors including Silver Lake, KKR, General Atlantic, Mubadala, GIC, TPG and ADIA in less than four weeks.
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