On the path to excellence

The M&M Group started its retail journey with a small textile retail store on the buzzing Besant Road of the Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh in 1985, and eventually evolved and expanded into a large group that we see today. The group has the retail formats Manhar, M&M and Maanya under its umbrella. Even after 25 years of existence, Manhar, the parent store is still going strong. It is the favourite shopping destination of not only the city of Vijayawada but also for the people from the nearby districts.

 

Excellent retail experience


The group works on the mission of providing the best shopping experience to anyone who walks into the store. The sales persons are trained to take care of every minute requirements of a customer. Meeting the alteration or exchange demands, guiding a customer for purchase decision, comprehending his/her requirement, and other services at the store’s level are attended with timely help and assurance from the employees accompanied by vibrant and warm smiles. In addition, there is also a feedback form which is duly taken care of. The practice enables the services provided with to rectify and evolve, making them more customer-friendly.

 

Merchandising assortment makes sure that it complies with the local preferences. A dedicated merchandising team is there to quench the customers’ fashion thirst. With a thorough understanding of the local tastes and preferences, this team has been constantly striving to bring freshness into the choices they offer, aligning them with the latest trends.

 

M&M - the lifestyle store 


Fashion retailing made a bold movement as M&M, a part of M&M Group, was set to send across the vibe of hi-profile dressing code. International style statements receive an impetus with M&M introducing latest designs of international brands for the Andhra-ites.

 

M&M store has been setting new trends consistently, offering its customers a choice of international range of clothing and lifestyle products. With the emergence of new fashion trends and ideas, revolutionary changes were made that were essential for the business to survive. Technological advances were adopted, customer preferences were understood and met with, and the process of innovation has been made to go on consistently. Slowly, it led to the evolution of what is today called M&M - one of the largest retail stores that the entire Andhra Pradesh witnessed.

 

The store displays a wide spectrum of merchandise, and the tag of family store is well ingrained in its offerings, giving a larger section of customers a scope to explore fashion. The offerings cater to all age groups, including men, women and kids. There’s so much one can discover at an M&M store. The merchandise at the store includes wedding wear, casual wear, formal wear, to cosmetics, footwear, perfumes and a lot more. One can shop for the best international brands like Burberry, US POLO, Paco Rabanne, Police, Izod, Chambor, Ferrari and many others. To ensure that each and every customer gets full value for every rupee spent at M&M, a unique loyalty programme has been launched. This is an endeavour towards ensuring every customer a special status of being the store’s prestigious customer with advantages and convenience. This program got tremendous response with 10000 memberships in a span of 6 months.

 

Expansion through franchise


M&M has the distinction of being the first and the largest lifestyle store in Andhra Pradesh and its popularity has made customers thronging from even the surrounding districts. The incredible success of the store invited requests for franchisee, which the group saw as a fantastic model for expansion of M&M’s footprint. The franchise business model has enabled M&M to reach out to the style and fashion conscious populace of 2-tier cities. In fact, one of M&M’s regular customers was the first to evince interest in seeking a franchisee. As a result, the first franchised store was opened in Kakinada in April 2007. This was followed by the stores in Kurnool and Guntur in 2008. The next stop was in Bhimavaram. Already being garment retailers, they have realised the potential of M&M franchise model and taken franchisee.

 

To give its customers the same experience everywhere, the store design and format of an M&M outlet has been retained the same, except for merchandise display.

 

M&M has always believed in quality, and delivered the same with every product to its customers. This has brought its customers even closer to the brand, increasing the number of loyal customers of the store despite the emergence of so many other brands in the market.

 

Maanya - fashion for women


Maanya, another retail format from M&M Group, is the largest and exclusive women’s specialty store in Andhra Pradesh. It mostly stocks premium collections along with a few collections of regular wear. The store has already made its mark in the fashion circle with aggressive promotions including photo shoots with famous models and by participating in fashion shows.

 

Training


The training forms an essential component for the upliftment of services. The group has deployed an excellent HR system to train, motivate and bring out the best from the employees. Mr Dinesh Achchpaliya, the Managing Director, and Mr Hari Achchpaliya, the Executive Director, believe that HR function forms the backbone of any organisation and they make it a point to be involved personally with the employee training processes. There is a dedicated team which takes care of the grievances of the employees and motivates the staff at regular intervals. In fact, all the employees who are working at the managerial level today had started their careers with the group a decade ago and were personally trained by the directors themselves.

 

Corporate Social Responsibility


M&M Group as a part of Corporate Social Responsibility programme launched “GO GREEN” initiative in 2008, “Save Water & Save Life” campaign in 2009, and the group is continuously putting every effort to do its bit towards these causes. The programmes were initiated to spread awareness and encourage customers to be more environment-friendly. The initiatives include distributing saplings to all who shop at M&M with the hope that they will take things forward and spread the awareness about conserving nature. 

 

The Future


The group plans to tap the market in other parts of the country by setting up stores under the franchisee model. Apart from expansion plans for M&M, the group also intends to come out with exclusive outlets which will exclusively retail kids’ wear, women’s wear and men’s wear - where every requirement will be fulfilled.

 

It’s a hard task to build a brand and after putting the best, M&M Group has attained the level of excellence in terms of offerings, reliability, and other pertinent retail services. The future that the group foresees is to live up to the customers’ expectations through implementation of best practices and retain the zeal for expansion.

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