| Friday, 22 November 2024 |
An abridged, narrative version of the latest episode of Two by Two, The Ken’s premium weekly business podcast Subscribe here
Good morning [%first_name |Dear Reader%],
I have a wonderful announcement for both listeners and readers of Two by Two—Apple Podcasts has handpicked Two by Two as one of its favourite podcasts of 2024!
Two by Two has been around for just about five months, and in that time, we’ve made sure we bring you a new episode without fail every Thursday, discussing the most important business stories from India.
We’ve invited top executives from listed companies, including the CEO of the company we’re discussing oftentimes, to present their own perspectives on the matter at hand. We’ve also invited subject-matter experts and professors from the country’s top B-schools. We’d like to thank them all for coming on board and speaking their mind.
We’d also like to thank you, our listeners and readers, who love the show and write in with your thoughts, appreciation, and even misgivings about our arguments and perspectives. We’re grateful to all of our existing subscribers, and the ones who took the leap and decided to pay for a podcast. The same goes for all of our free listeners. It has been an interesting and exciting journey so far, and we hope to give you enough reason over time to upgrade and become a Premium listener too!
In this week’s episode of Two by Two, my co-host Praveen Gopal Krishnan and I decided to examine the serious new challenges that have emerged for supermarket chain Dmart.
This was hard to imagine once because no retail business—online or offline—could compete with Dmart’s steep discounts. Or the fact that despite them, its profit margins consistently beat its competitors’. Dmart punches above its weight even in the global arena.
To quote our guests:
Seetharaman: …which is why Dmart is incredible. They don’t just make money, they make a lot of it
Govind: Absolutely.
As subscribers to The Ken might already know, Seetharaman G is our deputy editor and our resident expert on all things retail. Over the years, he’s written extensively about Dmart in his weekly newsletter, Trade Tricks. Our other guest, Govind Shrikhande, is a former managing director of Shoppers Stop and has spent over 40 years in the retail sector, having been part of the launches of Denim and Arrow, the relaunch of Vivaldi, and the turnaround of Shoppers Stop itself.
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