Triveni Khushali Bazaar, a retail initiative by Triveni Engineering and Industries Ltd, aimed to improve farmer relations and offer products in rural and semi-urban India but faced challenges, leading to significant losses. Despite initial growth and expansion plans to reach 200 stores, the venture struggled against local competition and poor marketing, ultimately resulting in the closure of 25 outlets and laying off 300 employees. The company decided to shut down the operations while restructuring for profitability as it was unable to secure a buyer.

1. AN INITIATIVE OF TRIVENI ENGINEERING
AND INDUSTRIES LTD.
TRIVENI KHUSHALI
BAZAAR
EFFORTS BY:
HIMANI GUPTA
131106

2. Triveni Engineering & Industries Ltd. ('Triveni') is one of India's
leading companies engaged in the manufacture of sugar and
engineered-to-order mechanical equipment, such as steam turbines,
high speed gears and water and wastewater treatment equipment.
The company's core strength in the engineering business emerges
from its focus on high quality, high technology and continuing focus
on research & development strongly supported by after sales service
network. The company has created a niche for itself in the
engineered to order mechanical equipment space with market
leadership in steam turbines and high-speed gears in its applicable
market segments. In the sugar business, Triveni has a daily sugar
cane crushing capacity of 61000 tonnes with 68 MW of co-
generation capacity and 160,000 litres of distillery.

3.  Triveni Khushali Bazaar(TKB) started its operations at
Khatauli and Deoband during February 2005 as a
strategic business unit ofTriveni Engineering and
Industries Ltd.
 The concept “retail initiative” was introduced with an
objective of improving farmer relations with their sugar
factories and curbing exploitation and adulteration by
middlemen in the catchment areas of the sugar plants.

5.  To give more focus on this activity,
its business was transferred to a
100 per cent owned subsidiary,
renamed asTriveni RetailVentures
Ltd.
 The subsidiary operates retail
formats in both rural and semi-
urban India, with stores mainly
concentrated in Uttar Pradesh and
Uttarakhand.
 Headquartered in Noida(Uttar
Pradesh), the company operates
over 0.125 million sq. ft. of retail
space, has over 42 stores across 25
towns in India and employs over
300 people.

6. TKB draws its lineage from the house ofTriveni.TKB
evolved based on the understanding of rural and semi-
urban households; their daily needs and aspirations.The
guiding mission is to bring the latest products at the best
prices and quality to the customers in semi-urban and
rural regions.TKB’s value proposition is superior
customer service, assured quality, fair prices, speedy
transactions and a clean, safe and friendly environment
that provides the customer a good buying experience.
TKB aims to provide value to its customers through a
vast array of strategic tie-ups with intuitions across
private and public sectors.

8. riveni hushali azaar has extended its product profile and has now
started working on three verticals. In addition to agri and non-agri
products,TKB has also started offering technical advisory services, financial
and insurance products with its channel partners.The financial and
insurance services would be taken across all stores so as to complete the
product portfolio.The products & services offered in each of vertical are as
below:
 AGRI VERTICAL
Seeds, Fertilizers, Plant Protection Chemicals , Animal Feed & Nutrients,
Building Material, Farm Machinery & Equipments and Petrol/ Diesel.
 NON- AGRI VERTICAL
FMCG, Groceries and other Lifestyle products such as – Consumer
Durables, Imitation Jewellery, Apparels, Colour Cosmetics,Toys, Crockery,
Kitchen Appliances, Electrical Items etc.
 FINANCE/SERVICE VERTICAL
Farm Credit, Life Insurance, Mutual Funds, Home Delivery, Farm Advisory
Services, Socio-Economic Activities, Soil &WaterTesting facility.

9. With the year 2006-07(April 06-March 07) bringing on a
good start, the Company's topline stood at Rs. 232 million
and it has also witnessed major expansion in the number of
stores. The company strengthened its presence by adding
29th stores and as on 30 September 2007 the total number
of Khushali stores standing at 40 stores - this comprises 37
stores situated across 12 districts of Uttar Pradesh and 3
stores in the state of Uttarakhand.

11.  LONG STANDING RURAL PRESENCE:
Translating the insight from our longstanding sugar business, we have been
able to leverage on our rural presence. Understanding the customer needs,
we have been able to bring in a varied stocking of goods and services in the
retail shops. Now, we atTKB, take pride in initiating and fulfilling nearly all
the requirements of the rural/semi-urban population by providing all agri
and non-agri products as well as various services like credit facilities and
insurance.
 CHOICE OF BEST QUALITY & SERVICE:
The varied stocking of multi-brands atTKB provides the rural and semi-
urban customer the “Advantage of Choice”.The products are not only
genuine but are also priced attractively. Further,TKB also provides technical
and financial services under the same roof.
 LOW COST:
All of the retail outlets have been commissioned on leased land thereby
requiring low capital cost and a majority of them are company operated.
Additionally, the company's decision to procure goods in bulk coupled with
a combination of a large throughput and low operational cost has
translated into good pricing and margins.

13. This concept should have been very
successful, since the town (rural)
customers do not have too much
variety and options in the local
market. A survey on the income
group showed a good portion of
local businessman and government
employees with household incomes
in the range of 10k to 30k per
month.
But still the store has not done well
and the daily average sales are only
in the ranges of 15,000, which is very
dismal in comparison with local
town retailers.

14. The main reason for this could be the very poor Marketing
Communication practices followed by TKB. An example of an
inefficient visual merchandising is shown here. These are how the
promotional offers displayed in store. The store also has very poor
visibility within the local town. A new establishment should
advertise aggressively in order to pull new customers to visit its
store.

15. Triveni Khushali Bazaar plans to experiment with various business
models at its established stores to gauge customer reaction and
feedback before pursuing an aggressive growth plan. Since the
business is still in an evolutionary stage and with the adoption of
various business models to optimize the operations, we expect
the operations and margins to stabilize in future. With the first
mover advantage in the areas of our operations, TKB will be able
to take the benefit of future growth in these markets and make
efforts to expand its operations to other areas of Uttar Pradesh &
Uttarakhand. Major focus would be to strengthen & expand the
non-agri and finance verticals so as to cater to a larger customer
base. The expansion of life style products range in the non-agri
vertical will enable us to move into more developed townships
and B-class cities.

16. By 2009, TKB plans to have a total of 200 stores. The chain
currently has 45 outlets that sell agricultural implements,
diesel, fertilizers, and consumer goods to the farming and
rural community. The company plans to invest Rs75 crore for
expanding operations of which it will spend Rs25 crore in
the current fiscal, with the rest scheduled for 2008-09.
Triveni’s outlets are located in western Uttar Pradesh and
Uttarakhand. It plans to expand in other parts of Uttar
Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana. TKB has two
formats. The larger format has a store area of 4,000 sq. ft
and needs an investment of Rs30 lakh to set up. The smaller
format is spread over 800 sq. ft and requires an investment
of Rs10 lakh.

19. Reliance Money ties-up with Triveni Retail Ventures to retail financial
products and services in UP and Uttrakhand
Partnership aimed to promote sound financial planning and investment
culture amongst rural and semi-urban masses
Reliance Money to set up shop-in-shops in all Triveni promoted Khushali
outlets in the states
Alliance to help Reliance Money source business from other Sugar and
Engineering Business in Northern India
Triveni Retail Ventures Limited plan to have over 50 outlets operational
in North India by the end of the year and cover over 5 million rural and
semi-urban households in the next 3 years

20. Lucknow, April 24, 2008:
Reliance Money, the financial distribution company of the Reliance Anil
Dhirubhai Ambani Group, and Triveni Retail Ventures Ltd., a 100%
subsidiary of Triveni Engineering & Industries Ltd, today announced a
first of-its-kind tie-up in the industry.
Under this alliance, Reliance Money will partner with Triveni promoted
retail chain - Khushali Bazaar - for distribution of financial products and
services through their outlets in the state of Uttar Pradesh and
Uttaranchal.
The tie-up was announced by Mr. Sudip Bandyopadhyay, Director and
CEO, Reliance Money, and Mr. Tarun Sawhney, Corp. V.P. of Triveni
Engineering & Industries Ltd.
''Financial retailing in rural India is still dominated by middlemen,
money lenders and intermediaries. Concurrently, per capita income of
rural population is expected to double by 2012. Zeroing in on this
opportunity of serving a burgeoning rural middle class, we at Reliance
Money are happy to partner with Triveni Khushali Bazaar to enhance
our reach and tap the rural potential,'' said Mr Bandyopadhyay.

21. As per the understanding, Reliance Money will set up shop-in-shops in all 42
Triveni Khushali Bazaars - serving farm and household products and financial
services, in Uttar Pradesh and Uttrakhand - to sell its product offerings
including Life Insurance, General Insurance, and Mutual Fund products.
“This partnership will help Reliance Money take its slew of financial products
and services to the rural and semi-urban masses and enhance its customer
acquisition and servicing by providing customers additional convenient
locations for completing their financial transactions”, said Mr Bandyopadhyay.
''Khushali Bazaar has emerged as the preferred destination of rural and semi-
urban hoppers. This strategic alliance will help us enhance our product
offering, making it more comprehensive for our customers. We plan to have
over 50 outlets operational in North India by the end of the year and cover
over 5 million rural and semi-urban households in the next 3 years. The tie-up
would be a value-added proposition for customers visiting the outlets. The
scope of the partnership would increase with the expansion of the retail chain
across North India. Besides, Reliance Money also expects to source further
business from other Sugar and Engineering businesses in Northern India
through this tie-up,” said Mr Sawhney.

23. Dhruv M Sawhney-promoted Triveni Engineering & Industries Ltd shutdown its loss-
making rural retail business.
Its fully-owned retail arm, Triveni Retail Ventures Ltd, operates under the brand name,
Triveni Khushali Bazaar, and incurred losses of over Rs 19 crore up to March 2009.
It was decided to shut down the rural retail business, since it had been making losses.
The overheads are high in organised retail and TKB was facing difficulties in competing
with the local Kirana stores. Triveni was earlier reported to have been looking for a
buyer.
The company, with a retail space of over 1,25,000 sq ft, had not expanded its number of
outlets for the last couple of years.
It also tied up with Max New York Life and Reliance Money to offer financial services.
Triveni Engineering had ambitious growth plans in rural retail. With large
sugar mills in UP, it planned to leverage its presence amongst over 250,000 farmers to
get into the sector. Triveni Engineering is not the only one to invest in rural retail. ITC,
Godrej Group and DCM Shriram Consolidated also have invested.

24. "The biggest bottleneck towards development in rural markets is the excessive
dependence on agriculture and consequently, on rainfall. There is overall
slowdown of GDP growth every time there is poor rainfall," says a CII-
Technopak study on rural retail.
The rural consumer is unique, and it requires long painstaking efforts to
understand, relate to and be accepted by him. Rural marketing involves more
intensive personal selling efforts, compared to urban marketing. "To effectively
tap the rural market, a brand must have associations that the rural consumer
can relate to. There are several other infrastructure bottlenecks such as power,
water, roads, etc," says the study.
"The rural retail business will turn profitable over a period of time, since there is
a growth potential. It cannot experience the rapid growth witnessed in urban
cities," said Saloni Nangia, VP (Retail & Consumer Goods), Technopak.

26. TRIVENI KHUSHALI BAZAAR SHUTS SHOP
Posted On: 15-09-2009 00:00:00 09
As per a report in Economic Times, Triveni Khushali Bazaar, the retail
arm of the Noida-based Triveni Engineering & Industries is closing
down all its stores. The company, which had 42 Triveni Khushali Bazaar
outlets located across 25 small towns, has already shut down 25 of
them in the past 10 days and given pink slips to 300 employees.
However, the management said the company was only going through a
re-structuring to increase profitability. The group that manufactures
sugar and engineering equipment had entered the business in 2007
with an offer of agri products, consumer products and financial
services targeted at the rural consumer. Triveni was reported to have
been looking for a buyer for some months. Failure to find a buyer has
led them to shut the business.