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News Update from the Retail Scene in India
chillibreeze writer — Chillibreeze Business Research Team
The retail industry could see a sea change with the Government of India considering Foreign Direct Investment. With this in view, Chillibreeze plans to bring you periodical updates on the retail scene in India.
The Chillibreeze Business Research Team has writers with interest and experience in the Retail industry, will be populating this page with the updates.
India Retail News: Wills Lifestyle, Reckitt Benckiser, Himalaya Drug, YSL Beaute, The Athlete’s Foot and more
Older news Items
Friday, February 10, 2006 Hypercity Retail to open 55 hypermarkets
Hypercity Retail, a subsidiary of the K Raheja Group which also owns major department store Shopper’s Stop and bookstore chain Crossword, announced that it will open 55 hypermarkets by 2015.
The stores will be primarily in middle class areas in tier I and II cities. The first three hypermarkets will open in Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Pune by 2006 end.
Approximately 70% of the stock will be sourced directly from ‘mandis’ or rural markets. Eventually the company would like to work directly with the farmers.
Source: Fresh Plaza
Saturday, February 11, 2006 The Athlete’s Foot opens in Bangalore
The Athlete’s Foot opened its first store in India in Bangalore in a tie up with Planet Sports. The store is the first speciality shoe store in India and will sell brands like Nike, Adidas, Reebok and Puma. The company plans to open a second store in Bangalore after which it will open in Delhi and Mumbai.
Source: Economic Times
Weekly Retail News – Feb. 12th to 18th 2006
Monday, February 13, 2006 Reid & Taylor in expansion mode
Reid & Taylor, a division of S Kumar’s, is planning to expand its stores to 150, up from its current number of 21 at present. According to Ashwani Misra, Senior Vice President for Marketing, the company would like to increase its visibility across the country and is locating most new stores in stand-alone high-street outlets and in malls.
Source: Economic Times
Monday, February 13, 2006 FMCG sales in rural areas greater than towns
The growth of the FMCG sector in rural markets has grown faster than in urban markets this financial year. Analysts believe the growth is because good monsoons have increased rural income and purchasing power.
Products that have shown a marked increase include toothpaste, hair oil and shampoos. Shampoo sales have grown by 30.8% in rural India as compared to 11% in urban India.
Source: Business Standard
Monday, February 13, 2006 Government notifies guidelines for single brand retail FDI
The government notified guidelines for allowing FDI in single brand retailing. The notification will cover single brand products that are branded during manufacturing and sold under the same brand in the international market.
There will be various levels of approvals required from:
Secretariat of Industrial Assistance under the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP)
Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB)
For more details, go to http://dipp.nic.in
Source: The Hindu
Tuesday, February 14, 2006 Dewan Housing enters retail segment
The Wadhawan family which promotes Dewan Housing Finance Ltd (DHFL) is entering the food and beverage retail market through its new venture, Wadhawan Food Retail. Plans are also underway to enter the budget hospitality segment by 2006 end.
According to Gaurav Modwel, Head of Planning and Strategy, the company will open its first 6 retail stores in Mumbai by end of March 2006 and another 50 stores by the end of the year in Mumbai, Pune and Nasik.
The stores will be launched in three formats under the name Spinach:
Spinach Super: 6,000-8,000 sq ft super market
Spinach Local: 3,000 sq ft
Spinach Express: 1,500 sq ft
Spinach Local will be launched first.
Source: Business Standard
Tuesday, February 14, 2006 YSL keen on Indian retail
YSL Beaute, a division of the Gucci Group, is keen on cashing in on the development in the Indian retail sector. According to Tony Chin, CEO of Beauty Concept, the exclusive distributor of YSL in India, luxury goods sale account for 10% of total retail sales in India, of which fragrances make up of the largest portion. As the number of malls increase, sale of fragrances is likely to grow in double digits.
Source: Hindu Business Line
Tuesday, February 14, 2006 Himalaya to offer superior service
The Himalaya Drug Company announced it had opened its 92nd store. The company is planning to emphasize service, access to trained personnel and a quality shopping experience in their stores. Himalaya’s retail outlets serve as information centers for customers on Himalaya products and are linked electronically to a CRM Cell, which has access to medical doctors.
Source: Sify
Tuesday, February 14, 2006 Raymond enters children’s apparel segment
Raymond entered the children’s apparel segment with its brand ‘ZAPP!’ which will include apparel and accessories. Raymond will be setting up 12 ‘ZAPP!’ stores of 3,000-4,000 sq ft in metro cities in the next year. The clothes will be designed by the company’s in-house design team and will focus on the 4-12 age group.
Source: Hindu Business Line
Tuesday, February 14, 2006 Stanley Boutique opens its first store in Kolkata
National chain store of high-end genuine leather furniture opened its first store in Kolkata. The store is located in Mirania Gardens on the Eastern Metropolitan Bypass in a 5,000 sq ft store. Stanley Boutique has five other stores in the country in Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi and Hyderabad. The company is planning to expand to Chennai, Dubai, Colombo and Moscow by 2006 end.
Source: Magindia
Wednesday, February 15, 2006 Pune retail scene vibrant
Pune’s retail market is buzzing with Marks & Spencer and Guess planning to open exclusive outlets in the Kakade Magnum Mall. Marks & Spencer has taken a 5,000 sq ft space and Guess has taken a 2,000 sq ft space in the mall.
Another international retailer, Benetton is also launching its products for the first time in the city. The Kakade Magnum Mall has a total space of 1 lakh sq ft and has brands such as Westside, Piramyd, Levis and Adidas.
There are 21 new malls coming up in Pune where all the big names like Pyramid, Shopper’s Stop, Pantaloon, Zodiac, Westside, Lifestyle and Globus hope to be big draws. A total of 5 million sq ft of mall space will be functional by end 2006 and another 5 million sq ft is still in the planning stage and will be ready by 2010.
Source: Business Standard
Wednesday, February 15, 2006 Reckitt Benckiser changes India plan
Once it completes the global takeover of Boots, Reckitt Benckiser will be introducing several power brands in India. Chander M Sethi, Chairman and MD of Reckitt Benckiser India said that the company would be focusing initially on personal care and household cleaning products.
Source: Economic Times
Wednesday, February 15, 2006 Retailers worried about local Wal-Mart
Even though global giant Wal-Mart is not in the country, Indian retailers are worried by the entry of Reliance into retail. Many feel that Reliance is a more direct threat to current organized retailers than any international company due to its Indian heritage and knowledge of the market and systems.
The entry of Reliance in the retail segment has spurred retailers such as Nilgiri’s, Subhiksha, Viveks and Spencer to improve, consolidate their customer base, and increase their geographical reach before Reliance starts operations.
Chennai based Subhiksha is opening 80 stores in March-April in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. Nilgiri’s and Viveks are both planning to expand using private equity funds. RPG Group’s Spencer is planning a Rs 450 crore expansion over the next three years.
Source: Economic Times
Wednesday, February 15, 2006 Assocham tells govt. “Allow FDI in retail via automatic route”
President of industry body Assocham, Anil K Aggarwal said that once the policy to allow FDI in single brand retail has been taken, the government should permit FDI automatically and not through the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB). He also said that requiring multiple stages of approvals will cause delays.
Source: Economic Times
Wednesday, February 15, 2006 Top retailers becoming distributors for FMCG companies
Several top retailers like Big Bazaar, FoodWorld, Piramyd, Metro, Subhiksha and Aram Bagh have signed formal contracts to become distributors for FMCG companies like Fortune, Amul, Saffola, Sundrop, Parashute, Dabut and Henkel. This new model of business passes on 2% margin to retailers instead of middlemen and will eventually be passed on the consumers.
FMCG companies are paying special attention to the needs of large retailers because of higher brand visibility, access to customers and high volumes. Since customers make more impulse purchases in modern format stores, packaging plays an important role.
FMCG companies see the better margins given to large retailers an in investment to a strong relationship for the future. According to an A C Nielsen study, the average FMCG turnover per day per store from hypermarkets is Rs. 9.7 lakh, from departmental stores is Rs. 68,000 and from discount stores is Rs. 30,000.
Source: Economic Times
Wednesday, February 15, 2006 Reliance signs deal with US hospitality provider for outlets on highways
Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL) has opened over 100 fast food eateries in its petrol pumps along the Golden Quadrilateral and the north-south/east-west corridor. The company has tied up with Flying J, a US based hospitality service provider.
Reliance is planning to have an outlet every 100-300 km to coincide with the next level of growth in the travel industry, road travel. Catering to the budget traveler are the A1 Plazas that offer low cost food and bath areas and R-Care centers for automobile repair. Their up-market offering will be Refresh, catering to the moneyed traveler, the first one of which will be on the Ahmedabad-Vododra highway.
Source: Hindu Business Line
Wednesday, February 15, 2006 Barcodes required on all goods
Top retailers like FoodWorld, Spencers, Nilgiris, Pantaloon and Piramyd have signed an agreement to accept only items with barcode from July 1, 2006. Seventy percent of organized retail products are with EAN barcodes, while on the rest, retailers have to affix stickers themselves.
According to Gibson Vedamani, CEO of Retailers Association of India, barcoding will ensure that stocks levels are monitored at retail outlets and warehouses so that overstocking of items can be avoided.
Source: Hindu Business Line
Thursday, February 16, 2006 Next Shop announces expansion plans
The Chennai based lifestyle chain Next Shop is planning to open outlets in major cities. The latest store to open was in Kochi and stores in other cities like Bangalore, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad were being planned.
Source: Economic Times
Thursday, February 16, 2006 Raymond enters JV with Belgian firm
Raymond has entered into a 50:50 Joint Venture with UCO NV to create 80 million metres of denim each year. The new company will be called UCO Raymond and will be based in Europe. The company will have manufacturing units in the US, Belgium, Romania and India. UCO NV specializes in high quality denim for the European and American markets.
Raymond’s denim capacity is 30 million metres per year will increase to 40 million metres once the company expands. The company expects a turnover of Rs. 450 crores in the FY06 from its denim business.
Source: Business Standard
Thursday, February 16, 2006 Wills Lifestyle to sponsor India Fashion Week
Rathi Vinay Jha, Director General of the Fashion Design Council of India (FDCI) announced that ITC’s Wills Lifestyle is the official sponsor of the India Fashion Week (IFW) for the next three years.
Source: Business Standard
Friday, February 17, 2006 Levi Strauss to increase stores
Levi’s Strauss & Co is planning to increase its presence in India by adding two or more stores selling only their premium brands in Bangalore and Mumbai. Additionally, the company will open large format stores in six cities. Recently, the company opened a Women’s Only retail outlet in Bangalore and is still judging the success of the model.
Source: Hindu Business Line
Saturday, February 18, 2006 Gucci to enter India with Murjani
Gucci is to tie-up with the Murjani Group, the New York based company that developed and launched designer label Gloria Vanderbilt and Coca-Cola clothes. The company is likely to open boutiques in Mumbai and New Delhi in 2007.
Source: Hindu Business Line
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