Delhi-NCR’s most storied gourmet grocer, Modern Bazaar, founded in 1971 by the late Vishwant Kumar in Vasant Vihar, is reportedly in partnership discussions with Reliance Retail and DS Group-owned Le Marche.
The Management has clarified the business is not for sale. A strategic partner is what they seek. The numbers, however, tell a more complicated story.
In FY 2025, Modern Bazaar reported revenues of approximately INR 247 crore across 21 stores in Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida, and Chandigarh. Profit after tax, however stood at INR 1.43 crore.
That is a PAT margin of barely 0.58% — a number that no amount of premium brand positioning can disguise as a sustainable retail business model.
In FY 2024, PAT was INR 2.62 crore on a slightly higher topline. A year before that, profits fell 34% even as revenue grew modestly at 8.5%.
For a chain competing in the premium grocery space alongside Foodhall — the experience-led format with deep corporate backing — the economics of running 21 large-format stores in prime locations are unforgiving.
Rent, wages, import logistics, cold chain, and inventory carrying costs at premium locations do not negotiate with brand heritage or consumer affection.
This is precisely the trap that several independent premium grocery operators across India have quietly avoided.
Chennai’s Amma Naana has thrived for decades across a handful of stores — deeply rooted, stubbornly profitable.
The specialist curators at New Delhi’s Khan Market, Mumbai’s Linking Road, Bengaluru’s Commercial Street, and Kolkata’s Gariahat generate returns that would embarrass many chains with ten times their store count.
Their model is deceptively simple.
Stay small, stay focused, stay profitable. Do not confuse ambition with strategy, or topline growth with financial health.
Modern Bazaar’s growth from one store to 21 was understandable — even admirable. But INR 1.43 crore PAT on INR 247 crore revenue is a warning, not a footnote.
Whether a strategic partner materialises or not, the real conversation for India’s premium grocery independents must centre on PAT per store — not store count, not topline.
Editor’s Note
There is a quiet irony in the Modern Bazaar story that the trade press has largely missed.
The chain that proudly declared a five-star experience at a three-star rate is now discovering that running 21 premium stores on a PAT margin of 0.58% is financially precarious — at any star rating.
The partnership conversations with Reliance Retail are understandable as a distress signal, even if strategically questionable.
Reliance acquired Shri Kannan Departmental Store in Coimbatore for INR 152.5 crore in 2020 — a 29-store chain generating INR 415 crore in revenue with just INR 2 crore net profit.
Five years on, the Kannan brand has been absorbed without meaningful independent identity.
Modern Bazaar carries more brand equity than Kannan ever did.
Whether a partner would preserve that equity or simply absorb the real estate and the customer list is the question the Kumar family must answer clearly before signing anything.
The deeper issue — one this publication has watched build quietly over several years — is that premium grocery in India is a game best played small.
The legendary specialist stores on Khan Market, Commercial Street, and Gariahat did not survive by scaling. They survived by staying irreplaceable.
The moment a format tries to be everywhere for everyone in its category, it risks becoming nothing to nobody.
Modern Bazaar is not a cautionary tale yet.
But it is a timely reminder that in retail, scale is earned — not assumed. The industry will watch this one closely. So will this editor. — S. Shriram, Retail veteran and Editor-in-Chief, Retail Updates.
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