Retail in Asia

After Vishal Retail debacle, founder focuses on e-commerce

Three and a half years after his company Vishal Retail was sold to a consortium led by private equity giant TPG, Ram Chandra Agarwal is planning big on his new retail business, V2 Retail.

Now, Agarwal is considering expanding the chain of 16 V2 Retail stores, which primarily sell apparel, in various Indian states, including Uttar Pradesh and those in the North-east. He also plans to set up business-to-business and business-to-consumers e-commerce portals to focus on value fashion. "I want to make the e-commerce portal the country’s largest value-fashion portal," he said on the sidelines of the India Retail Forum in Mumbai.

He added he had learnt important lessons on managing cash flow, controlling expansion and not seeking short-term debt. In 2008, Vishal Retail ran into trouble after failing to raise equity, as rising debt levels crippled business prospects. As of June 2010, the company had INR730 crore (INR7.3 billion, USD119.8 million) of debt on its books.