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India went into a complete lockdown starting March 25, 2020. Since then every aspect of an individual’s life has taken a hit. The economy is crumbling before our eyes as we all try our best to work from home. Millions of people have received only a small portion of their salaries, if at all and some other unlucky ones have lost their jobs. However, there is one man, who no matter the cruel nature of this pandemic, has gained from the lockdown. It's none other than Radhakishan Damani.
Radhakishan Damani is the chairperson of Avenue Supermarts Ltd, which runs every mother’s favourite grocery store, D-Mart. You may be hearing his name today for the first time due to Damani’s choice of maintaining an extremely low profile. But today, this man has become the second richest man in India (according to Forbes India), only following business tycoon, Mukesh Ambani.
How did Radhakishan Damani profit from the lockdown?
It seems that ever since the country went into lockdown, the shares of Avenue Supermarts, which make for most of the wealth owned by Radhakishan Damani advanced 18% this year. And in turn, Damani’s fortune has grown to be a staggering $16.6 billion (when last checked on Forbes India). This massive growth in his wealth can be indirectly attributed to the coronavirus and lockdown-induced panic in the people. Here’s how.
When PM Narendra Modi announced that the country was to be under a lockdown for the next 21-days, people rushed out of their houses to stock up on all essential items and groceries. The scene was very reminiscent of the 2016 demonetisation night, except this time, people were queuing outside convenience stores as well as ATMs. And when they finally did get a chance to get inside, they bought everything that they could grab. Buying in bulk became the norm that night.
This trend has followed through this lockdown because the general public only ventures to markets once a week to grab essentials. This means more bulk buying and more sales. Considering that D-Mart has over 196 outlets, why would anybody go anywhere else but to their closest supermarket where they can find everything in one place. Moreover, everything at D-Mart is conveniently priced as there is no scope of haggling or shooting up prices of products during difficult times at this supermarket. This is one of the main reasons that D-Mart has become a hit among families across the spectrum.
What’s more, due to Government mandates, every shop of every commodity was shut down. But D-Mart has seen big sale days in the last few days and this owes to the growing fortune of Mr Radhakishan Damani.
On the other hand, business tycoons like Mukesh Ambani have been feeling the effects of lockdown on their business. In the recently released Forbes India list of the Richest Indian Billionaires 2020, the Reliance Industries chairperson could retain the first spot however a whopping $13.2 billion drop in his net worth since last year.
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