Value retail chains bet big on wallet share in Bihar, UP

With rising income and industrial expansion, the states are emerging as strategic retail zones

- Vaeshnavi Kasthuril

Bihar and Uttar Pradesh are emerging as a battleground for value retail chains, which are expanding their footprint to tap into the growing industrialization, rising incomes and large populations of these two states.

Value retailers such as V2 Retail Ltd, V-Mart Retail Ltd, Bazaar Style Retail Ltd, Vishal Mega Mart Ltd and City Kart are bolstering presence across the two states, opening new stores to capture a larger share of the growing market.

Value retailers sell essentials, household goods and fashion at affordable prices, targeting mass-market consumers in smaller towns and cities.

"Bihar and Uttar Pradesh have a lot of cities and districts with huge populations. That is why these are the best battlegrounds or best places where one can experiment their model," Lalit Agarwal, chief executive, V-Mart, said over a phone call with Mint.

V-Mart is a West Bengal-based company that has made the biggest bet among all value retailers on these two states.

The company has a 510-store network across the country, with nearly half of them concentrated in Uttar Pradesh (158) and Bihar (72).

In the past three years, of the 119 stores that the company added, 34 were opened in UP and 16 in Bihar.

The company divides its geographical spread into five zones—North, South, East, with UP and Bihar being zones in themselves.