Latest News and Events from the Indian Retail Sector

Weekly Retail News from India

General Plans and Information
Big players - plans and investments
International
Unique formats
Government Policy
Sector specific

	Buy our Omnibus edition featuring 4 reports covering the fast growing retail scene in India. Updated March 2008. The reports begin with an overview of Retail in India. Your purchase includes 3 additional reports on: 1. Grocery and Food Retail 2. Growth of Malls in India 3. Growth of Single Brand Stores in India

General Plans and Information

1. Dynamic pricing comes to consumer retail
The concept of dynamic pricing has been around for a while in India, for airfares and hotels and is now being seen in retailing of apparel, consumer electronics, personal care and other segments. According to Vishnu Prasad, CEO of Pantaloon Retail, “With the advent of modern retail, dynamic pricing can get a good response in our price-sensitive market. However, it should be done keeping in mind the consumer acceptability in respective markets as well as the store format.”

With dynamic pricing, the prices of products can respond to supply and demand factors in the market. According to Professor of Marketing at IIM-A Arvind Sahay, “Earlier, the companies were employing season-based pricing and clearance sale pricing. But now with high competition, demand pressure and higher consumer acceptability, we are adopting mid-term dynamic pricing.” Lalit Kumar, CEO of Ebony Retail Holdings agrees that dynamic pricing ensures a quick turnover of stock and generates good results.
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Source: The Economic Times

Big players - plans and investments

1. Pantaloon sees new highs in sales figures
Pantaloon Retail added around 450,000 sq ft of retail space in March 2007, in the form of 7 new Pantaloon stores, according to Vijay Chugh and Latika Chopra, JP Morgan analysts. According to their report, Pantaloon retail’s sales stood at Rs. 2.6 billion, up by 84%, while its value retail segment sales grew by 74%, lifestyle retailing grew by 24%, and home retailing grew by 10% at Rs. 286 million.
Monday, April 16, 2007
Source: DNA India

2. Reliance Retail gets ready to unveil e-commerce venture
Mukesh Ambani controlled Reliance Retail will be unveiling its e-commerce venture which has been created to complement its physical stores. The company has set up warehouses at specific locations from where delivery would take place from orders placed online.

According to a source, the company will be focusing on both the B2B and B2C focus for its e-commerce venture. Arvind Singhal adds that, “For Reliance Retail it makes a lot of sense to introduce an e-commerce arm as they have the advantage of physical stores already being present. Having physical delivery stores always add to the convenience and success of the online business model for retailers.”
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Source: The Economic Times

3. Reliance Retail agriculture based retail program in WB in trouble
Reliance Retail’s ambitions agri-retail plan in West Bengal has run into problems with several top leaders having voiced opposition to the project. At the weekly meeting of the CPI-M, Jyoti Basu said, "We are opposed to the way it (the Reliance project) is being done. It has created a lot of problems between us and it needs to be discussed by the party Central Committee and Politburo before a decision is taken.” Even with Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s approval, the project is not going to have an easy time getting finalized.
Friday, April 20, 2007
Source: The Economic Times

International

1. Calvin Klein to enter Indian market
US based designer brand Calvin Klein will be coming to India to for its watch and jewelry business, with stores opening by the end of April. The company hopes to have a minimum of 25 outlets in its first year in the country, in cities such as Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata.
Monday, April 16, 2007
Source: Indiaretailing.com

2. Starbucks entry depends to Vodafone verdict
Starbucks is anxiously awaiting the result of its proposal to the government, which it filed in December 2006, and is looking to see what the verdict is in the Vodafone proposal as well. The company has reportedly tied up with Future Group and its Indonesian franchise owner VP Sharma, although no confirmations have come from the company.
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Source: The Economic Times

3. Armani looks to DLF for tie up
Italian designer house Armani is reportedly in talks with the DLF Group and others as well to form a partnership to open stores in India. The company had earlier initiated talks with Reliance Retail, but they did not end positively. The company is very keen to open stores in Mumbai and Delhi. One of the possible reasons to join with the DLF Group could be access to its large amount of retail space in high visibility locations.
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Source: The Economic Times

4. Starbucks applies again
US based coffee chain Starbucks has filed a fresh and revised application with the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) to operate single brand stores in India. According to the Starbucks spokesperson, the company was hopeful of opening its first outlet by the end of this year in either Delhi or Mumbai. Starbucks is one of 15 companies that showed interest in opening stores once the Indian government permitted FDI in single brand retailing last year. Of the 15 applications, nine have been approved, three are pending and three have been rejected.
Friday, April 20, 2007
Source: Business Standard

5. Wal-Mart promotes companies feel-good image
Raj Jain, the CEO designate Wal-Mart India, spoke to The Economic Times and stated that the company was aiming to establish a relationship with the small traders in India by partnering with them to help them lower their costs and increase profits. He added that the company has already created strong ties with the country, with its $600 million sourcing from suppliers in India. On the issue of the company driving out the small retailers, Mr. Jain emphasized that its joint venture with Bharti for the cash-and-carry venture will sell high quality products to retailers, including smaller shop keepers.
Friday, April 20, 2007
Source: The Economic Times

Unique formats

1. Merlin Group to open home focused malls
Kolkata based real estate developer; Merlin Group announced that it has set up the first of its kind home and interior decoration mall. The mall covers more than 100,000 sq ft of space and is located in a central portion of the city. There is space for 150 retailers, from which Merlin hopes to get a steady stream of income.

Approximately 80% of the space has been rented out, and the remaining has been given on long-term lease. Rentals in the mall range from Rs. 60-175 per sq ft. Future Group’s Pantaloon is the anchor store, while some of the other stores are Godrej, Kapoor Lamps etc.
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Source: Business Standard

Government Policy

1. Govt’s concessional import on cold storage equipment to benefit retailers
With the government deciding to extend concessional import benefits for cold storage equipment, retailers will be the main gainers of the ruling as they create contiguous cold chains from farm to store. This benefit will be for all retailers who have a minimum of 1,000 sq mts of area in accordance to the Foreign Trade Policy. Retailers such as Pantaloon, HyperCITY, and Reliance are likely to be the main beneficiaries of this new rule.
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Source: The Economic Times

Sector specific

Apparel & Footwear

1. Women’s wear market sees a rush
As the number of working women increase, retailers selling ready-to-wear garments are seeing a rapid growth, especially some of the smaller retailers such as W and Bizarre. W plans to invest Rs. 300,000-500,000 per store to increase its store count from 130 to 500 over the next four years. The new stores would be a combination of standalone stores, multi-branded outlets and department stores. Bizzare is targeting smaller cities such as Agra and Chandigarh with its western wear and plans to open 6 stores this year and another 20 stores at a later stage.
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Source: Business Standard

Home Furnishings

1. Home Solutions ramps up retail
Future Group’s home focused retail format, Home Solutions is planning to increase across the country and is aiming for a turnover of Rs. 50 billion by the year 2009-2010. At present the stores cover 400,000 sq ft of retail space and have four brands; Collection-i for furniture and furnishings, eZone for consumer electronics, Home Town for furniture, home improvement and consumer electronics and Furniture Bazaar for furniture.

According to Kush Medhora, operations head for Home Solutions Retail, “As part of our strategy, we plan to scale up our operations rapidly and clock a turnover of Rs. 5,000 crore (Rs 50 billion) by June 2010. We intend to have 60 Collection-i format stores from 8 now, about 100 eZone outlets against 13 and some 28 Home Town outlets from the sole Noida store.”
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Source: The Economic Times

Consumer Durables

1. Chhabrias plan to enter retail sector again
The UAE based Chhabrias of the Jumbo Group are planning to reenter the Indian retail sector via its flagship company, Jumbo Electronics and will be launching it’s new chain of branded consumer electronics called Jumbo. The first Jumbo store will open in Delhi in the next few months.
Friday, April 20, 2007
Source: The Economic Times

Food & Grocery

1. Subhiksha aims for Rs. 30 billion by 2008
Chennai based food and grocery retailer, Subhiksha is aiming big and hope to reach Rs. 30 billion by the 2008 financial year. The company has 700 retail stores and will be opening another 300 with an investment of Rs. 1.5 billion in the next 2-3 months. Of the new stores, 100 will be in the state of Maharashtra, while the remaining will be in either the south or the north.
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Source: Business Standard

2. Reliance Fresh opens additional stores in Jaipur
Reliance added to its stores in Jaipur by added another 4 stores in the city, making it a total of 11 in the city now. According to Umesh Bhandari, chief executive, Rajasthan, of Reliance Retail, “We are extremely happy to reach a cross-section of customers. We will continue to deliver affordable goods, maintain quality and wide choice of products and services to the consumer. We will also fine tune our offering by listening to the consumers and learning from them.”
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Source: Business Standard

Pharma

1. Small pharmas team up to fight competition by large retail chains
Small phrama stores have teamed up to implement steps to fight back the competition from large chains. The All-India Chemist and Druggist Association (AIODC) is conducting talks with several companies such as Dr Lal Path Labs, Dr Reddy’s Labs and Thyrocare Pathology to offer diagnostic facilities.

Some of the larger chains that have planed pharma chain stores are Fortis who will be setting up 1,000 stores in the next 4-5 years, Dabur who will be setting up 300-400 stores, Reliance Retail who will be setting up 4,000 pharmacies and Medica Pharmacy who will be setting up 500 stores.
Saturday, April 21, 2007
Source: The Economic Times