Often cited as the father of India’s organized retail, the founder of Future Group sold his company to Reliance in an all-cash deal in August.
Five listed entities of the Future Group were folded into Future Enterprises Limited (FEL). Some of these companies are Future Retail, Future Lifestyle, and Future Consumer. The FEL then will sell the logistics, warehouse, wholesale, and retail businesses and the new owners will take on the related debt and current liabilities.
The deal seals his exit from the retail segment which he built over the last three decades.
Having completed the deal, he made no public observations until now.
The straight-shooter businessman informed the public as to why he made the decision.
Also Read: Bangladesh set to overtake India in this year’s per capita GDP, claims IMF
Rs 7,000 crore was the amount that Kishore Biyani suffered in revenue loss in four months due to the pandemic COVID-19 induced lockdown measures.
He also pointed that he did many acquisitions which were not able to pan out as expected because the pandemic hit.
“There was no way we could have survived. The problem is that rent and interest don’t stop. And our growth, investment and our acquisitions were done not through equity as much as we should have done. So everything came together during Covid”.
Further, he went ahead and warned the worst is yet to come for the retail industry as the mobility restrictions have transformed the customer attitudes towards shopping. He claimed that now customers do not go far from their residences to shop, and destination shopping places may have difficulty attracting customers.
He also observed that many categories of products which saw huge spending by customers will now face dwindling sales as the priorities of the customers get updated due to the pandemic.