Piramyd's Trumart is now Indiabulls Mart

Indiabulls has renamed Piramyd Retails' Trumart stores as Indiabulls Mart and Indiabulls Megastore.

This follows the acquisition of Piramyd Retail by Indiabulls Wholesale Services, the retail arm of Indiabulls Real Estate, in December 2007.

Indiabulls is also re-launching these stores to win customers and improve margins by strengthening the supply chain and relationships with vendors.

''The stores are being redone in terms of what they sell, how they sell, and the user-experience,'' said a senior group executive.

Piramyd has 35 neighbourhood convenience stores and seven lifestyle stores largely in the western.

Indiabulls is trying to leverage its relationships with suppliers to offer good deals at its convenience stores and win customers. ''We are trying to re-introduce the customers to Indiabulls Mart,'' said Ikroop Singh, CEO, Indiabulls Wholesale Services.

This was necessary as a study conducted few weeks after it took over Trumart found that customers perceived these to be ''MRP stores'' (goods sold at the maximum retail prices) and customers don't often find the stuff they want.

When organised retailers were harping on price, Piramyd was not able to provide extra savings to customers as its business was not growing fast enough. Piramyd had initially planned to roll out 128 Trumart stores by 2010.

"Customers started equating it with kirana (neighbourhood grocery) stores'' said an analyst tracking retail sector. Inability to scale up also meant that the chain could not attract the right margins from suppliers.

Retailers who buy from distributors operate on 8 per cent margin while organised retailers who sell bigger volumes command 10-12 per cent margin, which can go up to 18-20 per cent in some categories. Piramyd's bargaining power with suppliers also suffered when it was talking to prospective suitors in the last six months.

The retail arm of Indiabulls Real Estate is setting up 30 hypermarkets in tier-II cities such as Jaipur and Ahmedabad, and has already procured land in 21 of the 30 cities.

It is also strengthening supply chains by implementing SAP and ensuring that all its formats (hypermarkets, lifestyle and convenience stores) are on same technology platform.

The company also plans to ramp up the number of convenience stores from 35 to 50 by March and also plans to open a few lifestyle stores. Indiabulls acquired 84 cent stake in Piramyd Retail in December for Rs 175 crore.

Shares of Piramyd Retail have more than doubled to Rs 199.75 on the BSE after it was acquired by Indiabulls. They had fallen to an all-time low of Rs 49 on August 24.