Navjeevan Super Shop: Jalgaon’s Most Emblematic Grocery Chain

Jalgaon-based, North Maharashtra located, Kankariya family owned Navjeevan Super Shop and Navjeevan Plus branded grocery chain of supermarkets started off as a 25 sq.ft. road side shop. The shop was started by Zumbarlalji Kankariya who was 15 at the time. He named it Navjeevan, meaning new life after he acquired a provision store of the same name.

As the Jalgaon township grew, the sales and goodwill of Navjeevan increased, and by the 1980s it was the top-selling kirana store in Jalgaon. Renovation of the store in the year 1980 and the introduction of free home delivery service, apart from the quality of goods, were the keys to its success in the town.

“In 1993, we opened our first self-service superstore in Jalgaon after a visit to Chennai in the late 1980s opened their eyes to self-service stores which were touted as the future of retail,” says Zumbarlalji Kankariya’s son, anil kankariya.

The Kankariyas were a hands-on family, with the younger generation getting into the business in the late 70s and picking up skills important in the traditional grocery business.

Retail Expansion

Both Anil and his elder brother Kantilalji Kankariya wanted to improve upon the traditional way of retailing and decided to expand into modern retail.

“The year 1993 was a watershed year for us as the city got its first supermarket store and it turned us into pioneers of modern retail in northern Maharashtra,” says Anil Kankariya. Today, Navjeevan has completed 30 years of the launch of its self-service model in Jalgaon and is today present in all districts of Khandesh region, Maharashtra.

In 2020, the Kankariya family grocery retail business was split into two separate groups under the banners of Navjeevan Super Shop and Navjeevan Plus. The 9 operational stores were divided between the elder brother who took over 5 existing Navjeevan Super Shops, while four stores came the way of Anil Kankariya and were rebranded as Navjeevan Plus.

The total retailing area of the five shops under the Navjeevan Super Shop brand is approximately 12,000 sq.ft., whereas the trading area of Navjeevan Plus’ 4 stores spans 14,000 sq.ft. The smallest sized store is 1,200 sq.ft., and the largest is 6,000 sq.ft. Three stores belonging to the family are located outside Jalgaon as of now.

Early Struggle & Solutions

In the initial days of operation, although the Kankariyas managed to secure a Rs 10 lakh loan from Bank of Baroda, it was not enough to cover all expenses. They then decided to turn customers into store members by giving them a Rs. 125 bonus on their monthly purchase if they deposited Rs. 5,000 with the supermarket. The strategy played out well and it proved to be a masterstroke in consumer psychology.

Customers who turned members started visiting the store to check how the business was running and in the process the traffic and footfall at the store accelerated and business began to flourish.

Navjeevan stores started churning out profits in the fourth year of its launch. Competition was intense but the share of modern retail in the Khandesh region had grown enormously and it was easier to convince FMCG companies to consider Navjeevan at par with the national level competitors in Jalgaon.

The coming of national players in the Khandesh area like D-Mart and Big Bazaar helped Navjeevan work around a lot of the supply chain issues they had always faced. And while they learnt a lot from these players, they also came up with revolutionary schemes and events of their own which no player had executed or implemented, making their popularity soar.

Location Strategy

In terms of its location strategy, Navjeevan follows a simple thumb rule: Wherever its stores are located, it should have a catchment of at least 8,000-10,000 households within a 1.5-2 kilometer radius. The city’s market area is also an attractive location provided the rent is competitive.

Private Labels

Some of the kinetic sales growth of Navjeevan stores comes from its private-label products. The retailer has been making and packaging their own products in spices and pulses for roughly 3 years now, since 2020. It has also taken to actively branding and marketing its private-label products under its in-store brand, GroSho.

With over 75 years in the grocery business, Navjeevan has a rich network of sources for procuring the raw materials for their private labels – from places and directly from millers known for growing the finest, for example pulses are sourced from Jalna and Akola, wheat from areas in Madhya Pradesh, rice from North India Delhi, Haryana, and Punjab. 30%of overall sales are generated by its private-label products and they plan to amp this share up to 40-50% over the next 3 years.

The Future

Today, the consolidated annual revenue of all nine Navjeevan’s existing stores owned by the Kankariya family is Rs. 110 crore. Navjeevan Plus, led by Anil Kankariya posted revenues of Rs. 50 crore for the fiscal year 2022-23. Post Covid, Navjeevan Plus has embarked on the fastest pace of store expansion.

In the past two years, Navjeevan Plus added two new stores, and is on the way to open another 3 in the next 3-4 months. “We are on way to take our store count from 4 to 10 in the next two years. In terms of our revenue, we are confident of doubling it three years from now,” says Anil. By December this year, Navjeevan Plus will add three new stores under its banner, which will take its store count to seven overall.

The retailer plans to cover more talukas in the Khandesh region, in and around its epicenter of business in Jalgaon. In the future, it is looking to open stores in places like Dhule, Jalgaon, Nashik and the Nandurbar districts in north Maharashtra. “Our focus is offline. We see a tremendous opportunity as a regional player to grow offline. Modern retail is still in a nascent stage in India. We plan to expand in Tier IV towns/ talukas near Jalgaon and give those small towns a modern touch,” Anil concludes.

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