1 · Executive summary
The outlet park India has not built yet
India has discount chains (Fashion Factory, Vishal Mega Mart) and it has malls. It does not have the western retail-park format: single-storey, high-ceiling, drive-up units on cheap land outside the city, with 350 parking bays, a family entertainment anchor, and a food court. That format is what a consumer-goods manufacturer actually needs — space to display and store its own stock, at rents a manufacturer can pay, with a reason for a family to drive 20 km on a Sunday.
The business in one paragraph. RaAS leases 4 acres on a highway spur outside a major city, builds a 60,000 sq ft single-storey depot park (46,000 sq ft of manufacturer units, 4,000 sq ft food court, 10,000 sq ft family entertainment centre leased to an operator), and rents 700–2,500 sq ft units to consumer-goods manufacturers from that state at ₹85/sq ft/month on 3-year terms with a stock commitment. Total capex ₹14 Cr per depot; stabilised revenue ₹6.6 Cr and property EBITDA ₹2.51 Cr — an 18–20% yield on cost, against roughly 12–15% for a metro mall.
Year 1: 1 depot (Bengaluru, Nelamangala), revenue ₹4.8 Cr, EBITDA ₹(0.5) Cr.
Year 2: 3 depots, revenue ₹15.8 Cr, EBITDA ₹3.6 Cr (23%).
Year 3: 7 depots, revenue ₹36.5 Cr, EBITDA ₹10.4 Cr (28%).
Ask: ₹8.0 Cr (~US$910k) for depot one plus pre-development of depots two and three, an 18-month central team, and contingency. Each subsequent depot is funded by a stack that does not need new equity: tenant deposits and fit-out contributions, land-owner JV equity, and construction debt.
2 · The format
Home Depot's economics, Indian outlet stock
The reference point is not a mall. It is a retail park: the format that carries home improvement, electronics and furniture in the US and Europe because those categories need height, loading and parking, not footfall. Apply it to Indian consumer goods and three things change:
- Height replaces finish. A 24 ft clear-height shed at ₹1,350/sq ft does what a ₹2,500/sq ft mall fit-out does for a manufacturer — with pallet racking, mezzanine stock and drive-up loading.
- Parking replaces footfall. Land on a highway spur costs a fraction of mall rent, so 350 bays become affordable. A family that would not park twice in the city will drive 20 km for free parking, a food court and a bowling alley.
- Entertainment replaces anchor tenants. A mall needs a multiplex or a department store to pull traffic. A depot park needs 10,000 sq ft of FEC plus a food court — cheaper, and it converts a shopping trip into a three-hour outing.
What a manufacturer unit includes
| Element | Specification |
|---|---|
| Shell | 700–2,500 sq ft, 24 ft clear height, 3-phase power, own roller shutter and glass frontage |
| Storage | Optional mezzanine racking at +12 ft — the single feature a mall unit cannot offer and the reason a manufacturer can hold stock on site |
| Fit-out | Brand does its own (₹600–900/sq ft typical), or RaAS delivers a standard kit at ₹750/sq ft amortised into rent |
| Billing | Own GSTIN, own POS, own staff — or RaAS staff on a services bundle |
| Access | Drive-up loading for restock; rear service corridor shared with the park |
3 · The client
Consumer-goods manufacturers with stock, not brands with ambition
This plan's client is different from the two earlier RaAS editions. A RaAS pod client is a brand that needs a shopfront; a RaAS Depot client is a manufacturer with inventory it has already produced — end-of-season, export surplus, seconds, packaging-change stock, slow movers — and a distribution channel that will not absorb it without destroying its own price ladder.
What the manufacturer actually gets
| Need | How the depot solves it |
|---|---|
| Liquidate without breaking price | A separate channel 20 km from the city, physically and commercially distinct from full-price distribution. MRP discipline in the primary channel is preserved because the outlet is its own destination. |
| Sell direct, once | Factory-to-consumer margin on stock that would otherwise go to a jobber at 40–60% off — with the brand's own staff, signage and POS, and the customer data that comes with it. |
| Test a city cheaply | 700 sq ft at ₹85/sq ft is ₹60,000 a month — less than one display ad campaign — to learn whether a city responds to the product. |
| Store and display in one place | Mezzanine stock, drive-up restock: the unit is a store and a small warehouse simultaneously. |
| Reach a family that will not come to a mall | Parking, food, entertainment: the depot is a Sunday destination, not a chore errand. |
Target client profile, per state
- Tamil Nadu — the country's most concentrated FMCG manufacturing base, plus knitwear and textiles: Coimbatore, Tiruppur, Erode, Madurai, Sivakasi, Chennai. Tamil Nadu holds the largest number of MSMEs in India at 14.3% of the national total, which is exactly the long tail this format serves.
- Karnataka — food processing, coffee and spices, garments, electricals and auto components in Bengaluru, Mysuru, Mangaluru, Hubballi-Dharwad.
- Kerala — ayurveda and wellness, spices, coir, rubber, food products, plus a large base of small manufacturers serving a high-income, remittance-fed consumer market.
The three states are also the client's own manufacturing footprint, which matters: a depot works when the stock is within a day's truck drive of the park.
4 · Market
Two proven formats that have never been combined
Value and discount retail is proven at scale in India
- Fashion Factory (formerly Future Group's Brand Factory) reached 100 stores across 50 cities by December 2018 — India's largest discount retail chain — and survives today as a Reliance Retail chain of 81 stores. The demand for branded goods at a discount is not in question; the format is.
- Vishal Mega Mart posted ₹10,107 Cr revenue and 22–23% growth with ~17,500 sq ft stores, driven by private labels and tier-2/3 expansion. Value retail in India compounds at 20%+ when the price architecture is right.
- The gap: both are in-city, multi-brand, own-inventory retailers. Neither is a destination park, neither offers manufacturers their own branded unit, and neither has parking.
Entertainment is now a footfall utility, not a luxury
- The global family entertainment centre market was ~US$32–34 bn in 2025, growing 6.75–10.5% a year depending on the forecaster, with Asia-Pacific the fastest-growing region. Arcades are the largest single segment at 36–42% of the market.
- FECs are increasingly used by retail landlords to replace underperforming retail space, raise dwell time and rebuild family footfall — the mechanism this plan borrows deliberately.
- India-specific operators (Timezone, Fun City, Smaaash) already prove the operator model in malls. The depot does not need to invent entertainment; it needs to site it where land is cheap.
Why the park format is still unbuilt
Three reasons, all now addressable: Indian land aggregation outside city limits is slow and title-heavy; institutional capital preferred malls because they carried Grade A tenants; and no operator had a tenant pipeline of manufacturers ready to sign before construction. The first is a process problem, the second is a capital-structure problem, and the third is this plan's actual asset.
5 · City map
Twelve sites across three states, sequenced by manufacturing density
| State | City | Micro-market (highway spur) | Phase |
|---|---|---|---|
| Karnataka | Bengaluru | Nelamangala, NH-48 — warehouse land at ₹17–23/sq ft versus ₹30–40 in city | Y1 |
| Tamil Nadu | Chennai | Oragadam / Perungalathur, NH-48 — manufacturing corridor | Y2 |
| Kerala | Kochi | Aluva–Angamaly, NH-544 — airport corridor, high car ownership | Y2 |
| Karnataka | Bengaluru | Devanahalli, NH-44 — airport north, lower land cost | Y3 |
| Tamil Nadu | Coimbatore | Neelambur / Avinashi Road, NH-544 — textile and pump cluster | Y3 |
| Kerala | Kozhikode | Ramanattukara, NH-66 — northern Kerala catchment | Y3 |
| Tamil Nadu | Madurai | Ring Road, NH-44 — southern Tamil Nadu distribution hub | Y3 |
| Karnataka | Mysuru | Bannur Road — tourism plus local manufacturing | Y4-5 |
| Karnataka | Mangaluru | Kuloor — coastal catchment, NRI spend | Y4-5 |
| Karnataka | Hubballi-Dharwad | NH-48 bypass — north Karnataka distribution centre | Y4-5 |
| Tamil Nadu | Salem | NH-44 corridor — between Bengaluru and Coimbatore | Y4-5 |
| Kerala | Thiruvananthapuram | Kazhakkoottam — IT corridor, airport road | Y4-5 |
Site scorecard — every site must clear this before an LOI
| Test | Threshold | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Catchment within 25 min drive | 800k+ people | Below this the park cannot sustain an FEC and a food court |
| Highway frontage and access permission | Mandatory | NHAI access NOC if on a national highway; signage visibility is the cheapest marketing we own |
| Land | 3.5–5 acres, clear title | Title and conversion are the two killers; both resolved before design |
| Land cost | ≤ ₹8/sq ft/mo lease | Above this the 20% yield-on-cost case fails |
| Manufacturer pipeline | 25 signed expressions | No LOI without it — pre-leasing is the gate, not the hope |
| Power | 750 kVA available | FEC loads and F&B refrigeration |
6 · Why outskirts win
The arithmetic that makes the format work
| Line | City mall | RaAS Depot | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Land / shell cost per sq ft | ₹2,800–4,500 | ₹1,350 | Single storey, steel shed, no atrium or basement |
| Rent a tenant pays | ₹200–250 | ₹85 | Manufacturer can hold stock at this rent |
| Air-conditioned common area | Yes | None | Removes the largest fixed cost in Indian retail |
| Parking | 1:1,000 sq ft | 1:170 sq ft | Destination behaviour; family arrives by car |
| Build time | 30–42 months | 9–12 months | Capital recycles three times faster |
| Anchors required | Multiplex / department store | FEC + food court | Capex-light, lease-light, 3-hour dwell |
Land-rent anchor: Nelamangala commercial and warehouse space lists at ₹16–23/sq ft/month versus ₹30–40 in the city — a documented proxy for the outskirts discount this model depends on. Our bare-land underwriting of ≤₹8/sq ft is a management assumption to be confirmed by LOI in each micro-market.
7 · Revenue model
Five lines, one of which is rent
| Line | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Unit rent | ₹85/sq ft/month, 3-year term | Core line. 5% annual escalation, 3-month deposit, 6-month minimum stock commitment. |
| Services bundle | ₹12–25k/month | Staff, POS, housekeeping, security, shared marketing. 60% attach target. |
| FEC lease | ₹60/sq ft + 8% of turnover | Operator funds its own fit-out. This is a landlord line, not an operating business for RaAS. |
| Food court | ₹150/sq ft or 12% turnover | 8 kiosks, licensed operators, 3-year terms. |
| Media, parking, events | ₹2.5L parking + ₹2L media/month | Highway-facing signage, weekend markets, brand activation fees, paid parking after hour two. |
Why not take inventory risk: RaAS leases space and services to manufacturers who sell their own stock under their own GSTIN. That keeps us a landlord-operator — no inventory, no markdown risk, and no exposure to the multi-brand retail FDI route that applies to a company buying and reselling goods.
8 · Depot unit economics
One 4-acre depot, stabilised at 85% occupancy
| Per month | ₹ lakh | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Manufacturer units — 46,000 sq ft at 85% at ₹85 | 33.2 | 30 units, 700–2,500 sq ft |
| Services bundles — 60% attach | 3.6 | ₹20k average |
| FEC lease — 10,000 sq ft | 6.0 | ₹60/sq ft |
| FEC turnover share | 2.0 | 8% of ~₹25L monthly FEC revenue |
| Food court — 4,000 sq ft | 6.0 | ₹150/sq ft |
| Parking, media, events | 4.5 | 350 bays, highway signage, weekend markets |
| Revenue per depot | 55.3 | ₹6.6 Cr annualised at stabilisation |
| Land lease — 4 acres at ₹5/sq ft | (8.7) | 174,000 sq ft |
| Park staff (10 heads) | (7.5) | GM, ops, security supervision, maintenance, marketing |
| Utilities | (6.0) | Common area only; tenants metered separately |
| Repairs & maintenance | (3.5) | 2.5% of capex per year |
| Marketing & events | (4.5) | Catchment campaigns, weekend programming |
| Property tax & insurance | (1.4) | Commercial rates |
| Security & traffic | (2.8) | Contract agency, 24×7 |
| Property opex | (34.4) | |
| Property EBITDA | 20.9 | 38% margin — ₹2.51 Cr per depot per year |
Yield on cost = ₹2.51 Cr / ₹14.0 Cr = 18% at 85% occupancy, rising to 20% at 90%. Interest on construction debt is carried below the line; see §10 for the funding stack.
9 · Three-year P&L
Portfolio build (₹ crore)
| Line | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Depots trading (average) | 1 | 2.5 | 5.5 |
| Depots open at year end | 1 | 3 | 7 |
| Average occupancy | 60% | 80% | 85% |
| Unit rent | 2.82 | 9.38 | 21.94 |
| FEC & food court (contracted) | 1.47 | 4.10 | 9.24 |
| Services, parking, media | 0.55 | 2.28 | 5.34 |
| Revenue | 4.84 | 15.76 | 36.52 |
| Property opex | (3.77) | (9.87) | (22.71) |
| Property EBITDA | 1.07 | 5.89 | 13.81 |
| Central team (development, leasing, finance) | (1.60) | (2.30) | (3.40) |
| EBITDA | (0.53) | 3.59 | 10.41 |
| EBITDA margin | (11%) | 23% | 28% |
| Interest on construction debt | (0.18) | (0.92) | (2.02) |
| Pre-tax profit | (0.71) | 2.67 | 8.39 |
Year 1 carries a full central team against one trading depot. Break-even at portfolio level arrives with the third depot (month 22–24). Development margin is excluded: land-owner JV structures and construction debt keep each new depot equity-light.
10 · Capex & funding
₹14 crore per depot, ₹6 crore of it equity
| Line | ₹ crore | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Shell — 60,000 sq ft at ₹1,350 | 8.10 | Pre-engineered steel, 24 ft clear, slab, shutters, glazing |
| Site works, paving, parking, drainage | 2.40 | 350 bays, two-lane entry, landscaping |
| Power, water, STP, fire, CCTV | 1.30 | 750 kVA, fire NOC compliance |
| Signage, lighting, events plaza | 0.70 | Highway frontage is the cheapest media we own |
| Pre-opening, leasing, approvals | 0.60 | DC conversion, licences, launch marketing |
| Contingency | 0.90 | 6.9% — monsoon and approval slippage |
| Total capex per depot | 14.00 | ₹2,333 per sq ft of GLA |
Funding stack — the same at every site after the first
| Source | ₹ crore | Terms |
|---|---|---|
| RaAS equity | 5.50 | Seed for depot 1; retained earnings plus a Series A for later sites |
| Tenant deposits (3 months, 30 units) | 1.35 | Collected before handover, interest-free |
| Tenant fit-out contributions | 1.15 | ₹250/sq ft on 46,000 sq ft, amortised against rent |
| Land-owner JV equity | 2.50 | Land contributed against a profit share, reducing cash land cost |
| Construction debt | 3.50 | 10.5%, 7-year, secured on the built asset |
| Total | 14.00 | 39% equity, 18% tenant-funded, 25% debt |
11 · Pre-leasing engine
Nothing gets built without 25 signatures
The failure mode for this format is a completed park with empty units. The control is structural: no land LOI is signed until 25 manufacturers have given a written expression of interest at a stated rent, and no construction starts below 40% pre-leasing with deposits collected.
How the pipeline is built in each city
- Manufacturer lists by cluster. District MSME and industrial-association directories, GST-registered manufacturer lists, and the state MSME cluster map. Target 200 names per city, screened to those with consumer-facing products and owned brands.
- Association channels. CODISSIA and the textile and engineering associations in Coimbatore, the Malabar Chamber in Kozhikode, FKCCI and district chambers in Karnataka, plus state MSME facilitation offices. One endorsement per cluster is worth fifty cold calls.
- The stock pitch. A one-page calculation: 2,000 units of finished goods at ₹400 cost, sold to a jobber at ₹220 versus at the depot at ₹450 — the arithmetic does the selling.
- Festival calendar as the deadline. Sign-ups close against Onam, Deepavali, Pongal and Christmas stock cycles. Manufacturers make liquidation decisions on a season calendar, and we sell into that rhythm.
12 · Operations
A landlord's P&L with an operator's job
| Function | Design |
|---|---|
| Park management | One general manager per depot, plus maintenance, security supervision and a marketing coordinator — 10 heads total, not a retail workforce. Manufacturers staff their own units; RaAS staffs only on the paid services bundle. |
| FEC | Leased to a specialist operator on rent plus turnover share. RaAS does not run arcades — it runs the car park, the common area and the calendar. |
| Food court | Eight licensed kiosks on 3-year terms. Licences, FSSAI and waste handled by the operator; RaAS enforces the standard. |
| Events engine | 52 weekends a year: farmer and craft markets, brand activation slots, school holiday programming, vehicle launches. Events are the cheapest footfall lever and a paid media line at the same time. |
| Maintenance regime | Annual monsoon cycle: roof and drainage inspection before June, paving and lighting before October. A leaking shed in a retail park is a tenant-relations crisis, not a repair ticket. |
| Data | Footfall counters at entry, parking sensors, unit-level sales data from participating tenants, and a monthly trading report per manufacturer — the reason a tenant renews rather than negotiates. |
13 · Competition
Nobody occupies this position today
| Competitor | Position | Our difference |
|---|---|---|
| Fashion Factory (Reliance, ex-Brand Factory) | 81 in-city discount stores, own inventory, no parking, no manufacturer units | They buy stock and mark it down; we rent space to the manufacturer who owns the stock |
| Vishal Mega Mart / value chains | ₹10,107 Cr revenue, 17,500 sq ft stores, value assortment, city locations | Different job: they serve weekly grocery-plus-apparel; we serve a destination outlet trip |
| Malls (Lulu, Prozone, Brookefields) | ₹200–250/sq ft rents, 1:1,000 parking, multiplex anchors | Our tenant cannot afford a mall unit, and our customer will not fight mall traffic |
| Unorganised factory outlets | Sheds on industrial roads, no brand presentation, no parking, no entertainment | We are the branded, managed version of what they already do badly |
| Online marketplaces | Deep discount, no touch, no trial | Physical trial at outlet prices plus a family day out — the one thing a marketplace cannot sell |
| Outlet centres (e.g. The Stretch) | Mall-format outlet destinations, metro-skewed | Single-storey, drive-up, manufacturer-owned units at a third of the rent |
14 · Why us
The three capabilities this format actually requires
1 · Land, approvals and lease structuring
A depot is a land transaction before it is a retail one: aggregation across fragmented owners, DC conversion under Section 95 of the Karnataka Land Revenue Act (or DTCP and local-body equivalents in Tamil Nadu and Kerala), highway access permission, and a 25-year lease that survives a change of ownership. Insurance and global finance experience is directly relevant here — title risk, counterparty risk, and the structuring of a JV with a land-owner who wants upside rather than rent.
2 · Multi-tenant property operations
Thirty tenants, shared services, per-unit billing, footfall data, churn and re-letting, common-area cost recovery: this is serviced-office operations applied to a shed. The systems, the service bundles and the landlord discipline already exist in our operating history; they do not need to be invented.
3 · A manufacturer network
The pipeline is the moat. Twenty-five signed manufacturers per city before a shovel goes in the ground is a relationship asset, not a marketing spend — and it is built from industrial associations, MSME cluster networks and the partner relationships we already hold.
What we are not: a retailer. We do not buy stock, we do not mark down, and we do not carry inventory risk. That is what killed the discount chains — not the format, the balance sheet.
15 · Regulatory
What must be true before construction
| Requirement | Detail |
|---|---|
| Land use conversion | Karnataka: DC conversion under Section 95 of the Land Revenue Act — building without it is illegal, full stop. Tamil Nadu: DTCP layout approval and local-body building permit. Kerala: municipal or panchayat permit per site. |
| Highway access | NHAI access permission and signage approval where the site fronts a national highway; state highway authority equivalent elsewhere. |
| Fire and safety | Fire NOC for assembly occupancy; FEC and food court trigger additional requirements (evacuation, sprinklers, kitchen suppression). |
| GST | 18% on rent and on services; FEC tickets and F&B at applicable rates; each tenant files under its own GSTIN. |
| Pricing law | MRP is a ceiling, not a floor — selling below MRP is permitted, but the discounted price must be displayed and Legal Metrology declarations must remain intact on packaged goods. |
| FDI | The concession model (each manufacturer sells its own stock) keeps RaAS outside multi-brand retail trading, which requires government approval beyond 51% foreign investment. Any future move to buy-and-resell would change that and is deliberately not part of this plan. |
| Labour | Shops & Establishments registration in each state; contractors' labour licences for housekeeping and security. |
16 · Risks
Underwritten, with the control named
| Risk | Severity | Control |
|---|---|---|
| Empty park — manufacturers sign but do not stock | High | 25 expressions before land LOI; 40% pre-leased with deposits before construction; 6-month minimum stock commitment; rent abatement replaced by stock obligations |
| Approval delay (DC conversion, NHAI access) | High | Approvals run in parallel with pre-leasing and are a condition precedent to construction; no land payment beyond token until conversion is granted |
| Footfall is weekend-only | High | FEC and food court carry weekday programming; institutional and corporate channel (bulk gifting, staff sales); food court anchors lunch trade from nearby industrial units |
| Brand channel conflict — manufacturers fear cannibalising full-price distribution | Medium | Separate SKU and season allocation clauses; distance from city core; no online sales from the depot; outlet pricing governed by the manufacturer, not by RaAS |
| Land title and lease durability | Medium | Title search and encumbrance certificate before token; 25-year registered lease with change-of-ownership protection; land-owner JV where title is complex |
| Construction cost overrun | Medium | Fixed-price design-and-build contract with a steel supplier; 6.9% contingency; phased handover so retail opens before the FEC |
| FEC operator failure | Medium | Operator funds its own fit-out, so a failure costs rent and traffic, not capex; two-operator shortlist per city; replacement clause in the lease |
| Interest-rate and debt service | Medium | Debt capped at 25% of project cost; 7-year tenor against 3-year tenant terms with 5% escalation; DSCR tested at 70% occupancy |
| Key-person concentration in land and manufacturer relationships | Medium | Every LOI, tenant and approval logged in the CRM and register from day one; a development head hired by depot two |
17 · Roadmap
Depot one in 12 months, seven in 36
| Window | Milestone | Gate |
|---|---|---|
| M0–M3 | Entity, capital, site shortlist of 6 across Nelamangala, Devanahalli and Hosur Road; 200 manufacturers screened; FEC operator shortlist | 3 sites with clear title and conversion path |
| M3–M6 | Land LOI; DC conversion filed; 25 manufacturer expressions; design-and-build contract; 40% pre-leasing with deposits | Conversion granted, deposits in bank |
| M6–M12 | Depot 1 trading: 60,000 sq ft, 30 units, FEC and food court open | 60% occupancy at opening; ~₹41L monthly revenue |
| M13–M24 | Depots 2–3 (Chennai Oragadam, Kochi Aluva); central team complete; development head hired | Depot 2 opened within 10 months of depot 1; portfolio EBITDA positive |
| M25–M36 | Depots 4–7 (Devanahalli, Coimbatore, Kozhikode, Madurai); Series A raised on the stabilised asset base | ₹36.5 Cr revenue; 85% average occupancy; DSCR above 1.5× |
| Y4–Y5 | Remaining five sites in the three states; first depot outside them | 12 depots; template proven across two more states |
18 · The ask
₹8.0 crore to build the template, not to build a chain
| Use of funds | ₹ crore | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Depot 1 equity (Nelamangala) | 5.50 | 69% |
| Pre-development: depots 2–3 (land tokens, design, approvals) | 1.00 | 12% |
| Central team — 18 months (development, leasing, finance, ops) | 1.60 | 20% |
| Less: year-1 depot EBITDA | (1.07) | (13%) |
| Contingency | 0.97 | 12% |
| Total raise | 8.00 | 100% |
Depot one proves four things that cannot be argued on paper: that 25 manufacturers will sign before a shed exists, that a family will drive to a highway spur for parking plus a bowling alley, that a 4-acre park can be built in 12 months through Indian approvals, and that ₹85/sq ft clears a 18–20% yield on cost. Depots two to twelve are then a funding exercise, not a proof exercise — each one carries its own stack of tenant deposits, land-owner equity and construction debt, and the equity requirement per depot falls with every site.
19 · Comparators
How this sits beside the two RaAS editions
| Dimension | RaAS metro pods | RaAS tier-2 pods | RaAS Depot |
|---|---|---|---|
| Client | D2C brand | Regional brand | Consumer-goods manufacturer |
| Unit | 1,000 sq ft pod | 600 sq ft pod | 700–2,500 sq ft depot unit |
| Rent per sq ft | ₹340 all-in | ₹175 all-in | ₹85 base |
| Capex per site | ~₹2.4 Cr per city | ~₹1.3 Cr per city | ₹14 Cr per depot |
| Revenue per site | ₹1.6 Cr/yr | ₹0.9 Cr/yr | ₹6.6 Cr/yr stabilised |
| Contribution / yield | 17% pod | 19% pod | 38% property EBITDA |
| Capital intensity | Light | Light | Heavy — property business |
| Speed to revenue | 45–60 days | 45 days | 9–12 months |
| Moat | Cluster density, data | First mall per city | Land + manufacturer pipeline + approvals |
Portfolio logic. The depot business is a property business with 12-month build cycles and 20% yields; the pod businesses are operating businesses with 45-day cycles and 17–19% margins. They share one capability — leasing space to consumer businesses and running the shared layer — but they need different capital and different patience. Running all three from one company works only if the depot programme is funded as property (debt + JV + tenant deposits) while the pod programmes stay equity-light.
20 · Sources
- Wikipedia, Fashion Factory — formerly Future Group's Brand Factory; 100 stores across 50 cities by December 2018, now 81 stores under Reliance Retail. en.wikipedia.org
- ET Retail, Future Group's Brand Factory unveils mega sale with flat 50% off (2017) — format and positioning. retail.economictimes.indiatimes.com
- Vishal Mega Mart financials and broker notes — ₹10,107 Cr revenue, ~17,500 sq ft store size, 22.4% YoY growth. ipoplatform.com, ICICI Securities note
- Mordor Intelligence, Family Entertainment Center Market — US$32.62 bn in 2025, US$47.93 bn by 2031, 6.75% CAGR; arcades 40.21% of activity mix; Asia-Pacific fastest-growing. mordorintelligence.com
- Future Market Insights / BMI Leisure, FEC Market 2026 — US$34.4 bn in 2025, 10.5% CAGR to US$93.5 bn by 2035; arcades 36.4%; tickets 41.2% of revenue streams. bmileisure.com
- Naveen Properties and Squareyards listings, Nelamangala — commercial and warehouse space at ₹16–23/sq ft/month versus ₹30–40 in city. naveenproperties.co
- 1acre.in and DeedWise, DC Conversion Karnataka (Section 95) — statutory basis and process for agricultural-to-commercial conversion. 1acre.in
- Tamil Nadu DTCP, Conversion of Land — NOC and conversion route for non-agricultural use. dtcp.gov.in
- Kepler Ventures, Tamil Nadu: India's Fastest-Moving FMCG Manufacturing Hub (May 2025); MSME cluster listings noting Tamil Nadu holds 14.3% of India's MSMEs. kepler-ventures.com
- CBRE / Cushman & Wakefield India retail data (2025) and ANAROCK–IMAGES mall rents — mall rent and vacancy benchmarks used in the comparator table; see the metro edition of this plan, §4 and §18.
- PIB/DIPP, Guidelines for Single Brand Retail Trade — FDI thresholds and the multi-brand route that the concession model deliberately avoids. pib.gov.in
- Seed material on the RaaS category: leapinc.co/brands, b8ta.com/sell, Suning RaaS strategy (CES 2019), Kroger–Microsoft RaaS platform, Mercaux (TechCrunch 2018), Standard Cognition (StreetFight 2018), ecommerceIQ RaaS in Southeast Asia.
RaAS Depot · Manufacturer outlet parks · Confidential business plan, v1.0, October 2026. Financial projections are management estimates derived from the unit economics in §8 and the capex in §10; they are not audited. Land rents, construction costs and construction-debt terms are underwriting assumptions pending LOI, design-and-build quote and sanction letter respectively — each is flagged where used. Market figures are cited to the named source at the date shown.