Vijetha Supermarkets is among the biggest Food & Grocery retailers in Hyderabad and the State of Andhra Pradesh with 54 fruitful stores spanning 2.5 lakh square feet in retail area. With 20 years of excellence in understanding customer needs and delivering fresh and quality groceries, the retailer has earned a reputation for offering fresh and high quality products at a reasonable price to the customers.
“Our retail philosophy is to provide freshness, choice, value and service to our customers by making available at our fruitful stores everything that is essential for daily home needs and offering our customers the best deals and bargains,” says Jagan Mohan Rao, Chairman and Managing Director, Vijetha Supermarkets, who along with his wife and better half Krishnaveni laid the groundwork of the Vijetha retailing empire, which is now on path to adding newer and more spacious outlets under its banner. “Going forward, we will open new super stores and hypermarkets and aim to grow our store count to 100 by 2022, adds Rao.
Walk us through the inception and progression of Vijetha Supermarkets over the years.
Our first flagship outlet came into existence on March 07, 1999 at Chandanagar, Hyderabad, and thus started the corporate journey of Vijetha Supermarkets Pvt. Ltd as one of the pioneer retail companies in Hyderabad and the State of Andhra Pradesh.
Modern Trade stores were beginning to come up around the time and I felt it was the need of the hour to provide better customer service with a holistic approach to food and grocery trade. In all these years of our existence, we have been careful to drive our organization forward with a proper vision, dedication and mature thought process for meeting futuristic goals and objectives.
We have grown step by step, and our progress and achievements have been marked by our dedication and customer-centric attitude. At Vijetha Supermarkets, the management’s goal is to give the best quality products and services to our esteemed customers.
We believe in simplicity as our core business philosophy and it is this ethos that drives the culture and the way of working at Vijetha Supermarkets. We literally keep everything at Vijetha simple and systematic with the help and support of our employees who are all imparted proper training to this effect. But for their sincerity, hard work and integrity, our company would not have risen to this level and that’s why we at Vijetha dedicate the major chunk of our success to our employees.
From one store in 1999, the company has expanded to 54 fruitful stores spanning 2.5 lakh sq.ft. of retailing area, in 20 years. The major listed categories in our store are: Groceries, FMCG, Apparels, Fruits & Vegetables, Gifts & Novelties. Today, we are acknowledged as a successful retailer with a large footprint in the market place.
What is the major customer value proposition of your store?
Vijetha Supermarket promises to elevate shopping from being a daily chore to a world class shopping experience that also offers value for money. Our retail philosophy is to provide freshness, choice, value and service to our customers. Vijetha Supermarket tagline is ‘Fresh Healthy Living’, which highlights the importance we attach to selling the freshest of products, which are of superior quality. At our stores one can buy everything essential for daily home needs. We also have the best deals running every week where customers are offered the best of bargains.
Which customer segments do your stores cater to?
Our main catchment base is the urban and semi-urban population. Our stores cater to all customer segments – attracting the high-end, low-end and mid-end customers with a range of different product mixes.
How would you describe the distinguishing features of your stores and how are they different from others in the category?
At Vijetha Supermarkets, we service a wide range of products across categories like groceries, FMCG, general merchandising, apparels, gift & toys and fruits and vegetables. With a strong supply chain management in place, our focus is on the placement of healthy and quality products and on giving utmost importance to customer service. Th e stores’ operations are overseen by a highly experienced management and supported by a talented and dedicated base of over 1,000 employees who come with a rich knowledge of various product categories and with vast experience in different fields. We are proud to say that Vijetha Supermarkets is a well-structured organization with the right people in right place.
What is the location strategy for your stores?
We opened our first store in 1999, at Chandanagar, in Hyderabad. Ever since, we have opened stores based on our understanding of consumer needs and knowing the exact locations where a supermarket will be most accessible to the public. We know that a thorough understanding of store location and customer needs is key to a flourishing retail business and we have plenty of expertise and experience on these two fronts. All our stores are located in areas with high density and concentrated population, on main streets, which allows the stores to cater to different customer segments and service the needs and requirements of people with varied tastes.
What is your strategy for merchandise display and category management to make shopping more consumer centric at your stores?
In terms of display and merchandizing strategy, the focus is more on popular products and customers’ need-based products. Seasonal products are also prominently displayed. Th e visibility is high for value-generation products as well as cost-effective products as they enjoy a high demand in keeping with their large customer base.
Today, each category is getting more refined and is further expanding into sub-categories. Th e store and the staff need to be updated from time to time. And a constant check on them is required to give the best of experience and ease to our customers. More space is allocated to product and categories that are growing at a faster rate. Reallocation of space to products and their repositioning is a constant process at the store for better business propagation.
What are you doing to attract the young generation – the millennial and Gen Z shopper?
To attract and appeal to the young generation of shoppers, we stock products that are especially popular with this demographic cohort. Th e range includes imported food products from various countries and ready-to-eat foods. We also stock a wide and varied range of products in cosmetics and deodorants category. Th en, we also take special care in building on our confectionery category and improving on our product range for high priority youth focused items like energy drinks and energy bars.
Tell us how much of your private labels/house brands account for the share of food and grocery sales?
We have our own store brands in grocery and snacks. Our private label contributes about 15% of our overall sales in groceries and namkeens.
What is your marketing strategy and what steps do you take to promote your stores?
The best marketing approach for a food retailing outlet is to provide fresh and high quality products at a reasonable price and the customers become the best promoters of your store.
What are you doing to strengthen the online footprint of your brand?
We already have a good online presence through Vijethagrocer.com via which we offer all types of food products, fruits & vegetables, grocery products, households, and personal care products at an affordable price and with the facility of free home delivery across Hyderabad areas on a minimum order basis. Our online platform allows you to purchase with the option of cash on delivery or make the payment using credit/debit online banking also. So, if you are at Hyderabad and don’t want to go out for shopping at a supermarket, just login to vijethagrocer.com and place your order and get the benefits of purchasing at the best rates from us. Not only do we bring for you the healthiest and freshest fruits and vegetables, grocery and staples as well as the best organic food items at a most competitive price but also the assurance of same day delivery.
How would you describe your best achievements so far?
From a single store we have developed and grown to 54 fruitful stores, which is no mean achievement in itself. We have been able to expand and grow our business to the current level only due to our proper focus on customer service and on providing and making available healthy and fresh of stock of products to our customers on a daily basis.
What are your plans and targets for the future?
We are planning to open more number of outlets with bigger size. Going forward, we will open new super stores and hypermarkets.
Vijetha Supermarkets: From 54 stores currently, we plan to grow to 100 stores by 2022
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