'Punjab of the South': Future Group's Kishore Biyani says THIS city does extravagant spending

Every young entrepreneur wants to make it big but is faced with many hurdles in their journey to do so. One of the main hurdles is to know your customer and the nature of the market which one has to cater to. Future Group’s Kishore Biyani said in a podcast with YouTuber and social media influencer Raj Shamani that he believes Hyderabad is “Punjab of the South”. He added that the city has enormous consumption be it clothes, properties or movies.  

“Hyderabad as a city has unbelievably fascinated me. It’s Punjab of the South and the consumption is at a different level...of clothing, of properties, of movies. It’s the way the city has transformed. There are two cities I believe that have changed the face of entire cities—Ahmedabad and Hyderabad,” Biyani said.  

This, according to the Big Bazaar founder, includes landscape, roads, infrastructure, buildings, night life, culture and people. Biyani also explained that the Future Group used to launch every new venture from Hyderabad and used to score a sure shot win since everything sold there.  

“We used to launch every venture from Hyderabad and used to get a sure shot win. Everything sells there. It was a huge market for menswear and that could the case be now as well,” he said. The Big Bazaar founder said a 2.5 lakh sq. ft. Central store in Hyderabad used to do a business of Rs 500 crore and the EBITDA for that store stood at over Rs 50 crore.  

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Kishore Biyani explained that Hyderabad has extra consumption as the customers also buy things that they don’t require. When asked about the usage of the term ‘Punjab of the South’, he explained that he used it because Punjabis are extravagant in spending.  

Hyderabad, however, is not the only Indian city that fascinates Kishore Biyani. Patna and Varanasi are also among the cities that fascinate the Future Group boss. In case of Patna, Biyani says that it feels as if there is a shortage of everything there. He also recounted the crowds outside the first Domino’s that opened in Patna to illustrate his point further.  

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“There is nothing there, you can open anything there. Aspirations are very high and there is educated population. There is some old history and culture there as well. When Domino’s opened for the first time there, the crowd outside the outlet was unbelievable. We had never seen anything like this before. It feels like there is a shortage of everything there,” he said. Biyani furthermore said that companies are moving to Patna slowly and gradually.  

About Varanasi, he said that people joining the Future Group at a senior level were told to go to the city to understand India and its retail business.  

“The retail over there was very organised. If there is one shop selling undergarments, then the entire street was selling undergarments. It was a very well-designed market and I was unbelievably fascinated. One should visit Benares if they want to understand India. So anybody who used to join us at a senior level, we used to send them to Benares and I used to visit Benares a lot,” he said.  

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