Dmart = DiscountMart?

The one name that almost inevitably comes up when talking about the stock market is Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, the stalwart of the stock market who has made his fortunes trading, and for good reason. His acumen and trading insights have been admired by many. But only some know of who this tycoon considers his mentor to be.

You're sure to have gone grocery shopping or ordered online in this lockdown. You may not have shopped at or ordered from D-Mart but you couldn't possibly not have heard of it.

This new chain of supply stores may not overtly raise curiosity, but it masks an elaborate and well thought of business idea that can potentially outperform the long-time contenders in this game. The brain-child of one man.

Radhakishan Damani, the mentor of Rakesh Jhunjhunwala and founder of D-Mart came from a humble background. His father's business was that of ball-bearings and so after dropping out of college while pursuing B. Com he too got into his father's business.

However, after his father's death, he started as a broker in the stock market at the age of 32. He succeeded tremendously in the stock market and made a significant amount of money in the years that followed. He adopted an assortment of techniques, but settled to a large extent on long-term value investing.

RK Damani had been interested in consumer retail for a long time and although D-Mart is gaining recognition more recently, its inception dates back to 2002, when he opened the first store in Powai, a suburb in Mumbai.

In 2017, the parent company- 'Avenue Supermarkets' went public, and how. Avenue Supermart offered its shares to the public at a price of Rs 299 and got listed at Rs 604 after over-subscription.

Okay but what is so note-worthy about D-Mart?

Well, I’m glad you asked.

D-Mart as a super market comes off as nothing out of the ordinary but what’s intriguing about it is its business plan that has been the driving force to its profitability.

The vast majority of us love discounts and sales, and quite often look to buy what we need during those periods, but unfortunately, they aren’t year-round.

Or are they?

D-Mart is one of the few super markets that offers discounted prices on their goods year-round.