The Hindu Business Line : Hariyali Bazaar expanding to South, West

Hyderabad, Sept. 17 DCM Shriram Consolidated Ltd (DSCL) has chalked out big plans for expanding its Hariyali Kisaan Bazaar, a rural retail chain that offers both input and output support, to the South and West this financial year.

The company, which rolled out its first outlet at Eluru last week marking its entry into South India, would employ cluster approach for spreading its network.

“After covering Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra this financial year, we will expand to Karnataka and Gujarat,” Mr Rajiv Sinha, Deputy Managing Director of DSCL, told Business Line.

Hariyali stores offer a variety of input products, consumer goods, farm fuels and value-added services such as banking and insurance products. “We are looking at launching medical services too at the outlets,” he said.

For banking and insurance services, it has tied up with ICICI Bank, HDFC, ICICI Lombard and Bajaj Alliance. “Through banks, we are trying to attend to the credit needs of the farmers,” he said.

As it did with consumer brands, Hariyali would have multiple bank services. “We are going to talk to the locally strong banks in the respective regions. In Andhra Pradesh, we are in talks with Andhra Bank,” he said.

Agronomists at Hariyali outlets offerextension advice to the farmers, helping them to shift from subsistence farming to technology-led commercial farming. It also helped the farmers to aggregate farm produce and market it to buyers.

Mr Sinha said the company deployed IT solutions supported by a dedicated VSAT link. “Besides offering operational excellence, it helps us understand the consumer needs and attended to them accordingly,” he pointed out.

Cluster approach

Local DSCL representatives said the company would establish clusters for Andhra, Telangana and Rayalaseema regions in Andhra Pradesh. In Tamil Nadu, it would set up clusters based out of Coimbatore and Thanjavur. “Each cluster would have a distribution network,” they said. After Eluru, Hariyali Bazaars would come up in Guntur and Peddapalli (Karimnagar) in Andhra Pradesh.