Father’s grocery store changed face after leaving high paying job, now earning Rs 5 crore from startup

New Delhi. It is said that time keeps changing and with time one has to bring many changes in oneself. Sanjay Aggarwal and his son, living in Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh, have followed this strictly. About 14 years ago, in 2006, Sanjay Aggarwal decided to expand his 10X20 square feet grocery store to 1,500 square feet. But, even after this upgrade, there was not much growth in his business. Sanjay’s son Vaibhav Aggarwal saw that despite so much hard work, his father was neither able to earn enough profit nor take the business further. Losses, lack of capital and low investment continued to weaken his business. Seeing his father’s struggle, 31-year-old Vaibhav helped him. Apart from this, today Vaibhav has transformed more than 100 grocery stores in a dozen cities. Thus he started his startup – The Kirana Store Company. In the last two years alone, he has made a revenue of about Rs 5 crore from this startup.

Vaibhav tells that his father was the only earning person in the house and he used to run a grocery store by the name of ‘Kamala Store’ in Saharanpur. After completing engineering in 2013, Vaibhav worked with his father at a store for a few months and then started working in a multinational company in Mysore through campus placement. The experience of Mysore’s retail market proved to be completely new for him. Vaibhav, who lives here for work, found that there are smart stores here. The product mix and chain system of these stores are very different.

Left multinational company and took up a job with a salary of Rs 10,000
After shopping at these stores, he got the idea of ​​how he could improve his father’s store. After learning about these stores for about a year and after some thinking, Vaibhav left his job. In 2014, he became a sales manager in a retail company in Saharanpur at a salary of Rs 10,000. Vaibhav says that during this time he understood everything from the logistics of the retail market to how their product mix changes with place and distance. He found that the product mix changes every kilometer. There is a difference even in presentation and packaging. After seeing all this, many types of business ideas started coming to Vaibhav’s mind, but he was in no mood to leave his job once again.

Learned the intricacies of retail store through studies and work experience
During the period of 2014-15, there was a boom in the startup industry but they did not have much knowledge about it. To understand the concept, he decided to do Masters in Business Management in Delhi. Here the help of academics and faculty helped him in giving shape to his idea. Being associated with the grocery retail market and the unorganized sector, he was able to learn about many other matters. After completing his Masters degree, in 2017 he started working in an FMCG company in Delhi. Through this job, he got information about the retail market in 6 states including Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh. He minutely understood every detail of the product flow and prepared reports.

First rejuvenated father’s store
Within a year, Vaibhav decided to leave this job and bring changes in his father’s grocery store. By 2018, he made many changes in this store. He changed the way of keeping the products in this store, also prepared software to collect information about the sales of the products and their inventory management. He removed those products from the store which were incurring losses due to low sales and placed all the products in the store in such a way that they caught the attention of the customers. In this way the number of customers and their spending power increased.

Changed fortunes of 100 stores in small towns
This change reached people in his store through word-of-mouth. Thus, after seeing their store, a person requested to change his store also in a similar manner. After a little more effort through digital marketing, some more people asked him to change his store. This is how Vaibhav launched his startup. Vaibhav says that till January 2021, he has changed the image of more than 100 stores in about 12 cities. Most of these are from Tier-II and Tier-III cities. Talking about his experience, he says that people are ready to make changes in the grocery business, but they do not get such services through which they can get guidance. Most of the grocery stores have been running from the era of grandfather or father. They have not changed with time and changing market.

This startup also works to set up new stores
Vaibhav’s startup not only transforms the old store but also helps in setting up a new store from scratch. With the help of this startup, customers also get the facility to buy some products. Apart from fees, he charges Rs 1,000 per month from each store for software and analytics. Analytics report is released every 15 days so that the shopkeeper can make necessary changes in his shop. Apart from managing inventory, this also helps in boosting business.

What is the biggest challenge of this startup?
In the financial year 2019-20, this startup has generated a revenue of Rs 1 crore. It is expected to increase to Rs 5 crore by March 2020-21. Vaibhav further explains that the most difficult task of his business is how to prepare the customers for the need to make changes in their store. They have to give information about the profits made by making this change. Apart from this, the customers also have to be explained about the expenses incurred on this. This startup has made changes in many stores ranging from Rs 7 lakh to Rs 30 lakh. It takes them 6 months to 1 year.