| Type | Discount department store |
|---|---|
| Industry | Retail |
| Founded | Chennai, India (1997) |
| Number of locations | 1000 stores |
| Key people | R. Subramaniam |
| Employees | 25,000 |
| Website | www.subhiksha.in (defunct) |
Subhiksha was an Indian retail chain with 1600 outlets selling groceries, fruits, vegetables, medicines and mobile phones. It began operations in 1997, and was closed down in 2009 owing to financial mismanagement and a severe cash crunch.
The name Subhiksha means prosperity in Sanskrit. It opened its first store in Thiruvanmiyur in Chennai in March, 1997 with an investment of about Rs. 50 Lakh.[1]. It was started and managed by R Subramaniam, an IIM Ahmedabad alumnus. Subhiksha planned to open 1000 outlets by December 2008.[2] Subramanian also planned to invest Rs.500 crore to increase the number of outlets to 2000 across the country by 2009.
Trouble for Subhiksha began in late 2008 when the company ran out of cash, bringing its operations to a standstill. Subhiksha faced severe financial crisis pertaining to liquidity. The cash shortage eventually resulted in Subhiksha closing its nationwide network of 1,600 supermarket stores, and defaulting on loans, vendor payments and staff salaries. The overextended chain imploded and all stores across the country were shut down, most likely never to open again. [3][4]
In March 2010, Mr. Azim Premji, a well-known Indian business magnate, who had invested in Subhiksha through his private investment vehicle only a few months prior to its downfall, said that Subhiksha was a retail equivalent of Satyam - India's largest corporate fraud. He said, "There was an overstatement of accounts, fake inventory, fake bills, fake companies that money was transferred to." [5]