1. Smart product mix for smart apparel supply chain
STYLE, FASHION, BRAND IMAGE- these are the words capture the imagination of consumers shopping out for values in apparel items. The increasing globalisation, the market diversification and the volatile fashion intensify competition in the apparel chain. As a consequence, companies are forced to gain



Posted on 14 July 2008 | 4:38 pm

2. Retail---magic through logic!!!!
Two years ago, I was sitting through a talk by Mr. Joseph Weishar- an eminent and accomplished personality in the field of visual merchandising, I remember thinking -wow that’s a lot of years. Mr. Weishar has been successfully working in the retail industry for over 50 years



Posted on 12 July 2008 | 1:27 pm

3. Nalli Next Saree + Next Living Furnishing
Nalli - Premiun Silk Saree retailer from Chennai has launched Nalli Next chain of stores to be located in premium upscale markets offering apparels and soft furnishings. The first Nalli Next store opened for business in Alwarpet, Chennai spread on a 4,000 sft showroom. Bangalore, the retail destination of India will open a 15,000 sft Nalli Next showroom very soon.

Nalli Next will offer unique saris, designer sarees, apparels for marriage, parties, corporate events and casual wear as well.

Nalli group also unveiled home furnishing retail chain under the brand name, Next Living. Nalli already has an export oriented manufacturing unit in Noida, Delhi for home furnishings.



Posted on 10 July 2008 | 12:23 pm

4. Reliance funded Giny Jony on Expansion Spree
Reliance Capital Ltd funded, Kids retailer, Gini & Jony is on a major expansion spree. Giny & Jony currently has 141 stores and would like to take the count to 560 by 2010.

Giny & Jony currently retails kids wear. However, the company has unveiled its plans for entering the toys and utilities segment for which its is in talks with various international brands to bring them to India. Most of Giny & Jony stores are standalone stores and the company didn't make any comment on opening shop-in-shop concept.

Reliance Capital holds 22% stake in the company. Giny & Jony will invest Rs 150 cr for expansion ahead of its IPO.



Posted on 3 July 2008 | 3:26 am

5. Visual Merchandising - "The changing scenario"
Visit any mall today and chances are that almost half, if not more shops would be selling garments. In a highly competitive environment where brand names are increasing on the fashion and lifestyle clothesline, garment brand promoters are working on customer pull and retention strategies



Posted on 2 July 2008 | 1:14 pm

6. 8 more Malls from DLF
Withstanding the slowdown in the Indian Realty, especially Retail development, DLF has mega plans to build mega malls in Tier-I cities.

The company is planning to launch 7-8 new malls this year. Three of the malls are coming up in Delhi NCR and one in Chandigarh. The size of each mall is expected to be between 300,000 to 400,000 sft. DLF leases space in Mall to retailers.

With the current slowdown, we have informed reports that retailers are re-negotiating for rentals in malls and in some cases moving out.



Posted on 2 July 2008 | 3:14 am

7. Makeover strategies for your retail store
Your store, which was thriving till recently, witnesses dwindling sales out of the blue…… The first assumption is that this is nothing but a passing trend. However as the business continues to erode, you realize you must act promptly to shore it up. And after a quick review, what you conclude is that your retail



Posted on 27 June 2008 | 7:04 pm

8. Retail accounting: Your accounts management woes are lessened and prosperity guaranteed
The retail sector is where most of the activity related to transactions and deals take place. Competition from European and other nations of the globe and from other via media have forced the retailers to think again. They need practical tips to maintain their market share and simply to float with the tide. It becomes



Posted on 25 June 2008 | 6:53 pm

9. Birla + DKNY in Talks for Partnership
After being unsuccessful twice with Diesel and Armani, Birla Retail is trying to be lucky third time with American Fashion retailer DKNY [Now with Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessey - LVMH]

Madura Garments is already an established player in Lifestyle retailing in India with brands such as Louis Phillipe, Van Heusen, Peter England etc. DKNY operates 70 stores under the brand Donna Karan and DKNY. Madura's team is slated to meet for talks with LVMH in New York in July.

Vikram Rao of Birla Group said,


Madura's strategic intent is to expand international portfolio. We are exploring opportunities in this direction. So far, we have not signed any agreements with any brands.


DKNY is likely to carry a s super-premium brand tag in India when launched. DKNY offers wide range of apparels ranging from intimate womens wear to menswear, kids wear and accessories.



Posted on 15 June 2008 | 10:43 am

10. Khadi Outlets for Makeover
Khadi, the apparel of Gandhian era promoted by Khadi and Village Industries Commission, is spending upto Rs 3,500 crore [$800 Mn] to revamp its retail outlets.

Currently they plan to spend Rs 700 crore and launch Jeans cloth material followed by ready-to-wear jeans, affordably priced at Rs 500. New designs catering to the new generation will be crafted on the traditional Khadi cloth material. Makeover of store ambiance and staff training will also be undertaken in the current modernization plan.



Posted on 12 June 2008 | 9:20 am

11. Rosebys home adornment stores
Gujarat Heavy Chemicals Ltd [GHCL] owned "Rosebys Home Linen Outlets" a chain of 300 retail outlets across UK plans to open 700 stores in India to capture the nascent home decoration vertical market.

Mr. Nikhil Sen, Director Rosebys, said,


We hope to invest around Rs 200 crore in our PAN-India expansion in the first phase. The home linen being a low-involvement category has hitherto been on the lower end of the value chain. We believe that the nature of our products and our ability to save the customers based on their lifestyle requirements is what should dictate the nature of our in store products and solutions.

Roseby Indian stores will be a combination of multi-brand outlets. It is going to expand by franchising route. PE and VC investors maybe roped in at an appropriate time to raise funds.

Most of its goods will be manufactured by GHCL, some of them will be contract manufactured from various vendors in India. GHCL has a big challenge ahead to build Roseby brand in this segment as it will compete with Oma Home Decor Retail [Hero Group], Home Town Retail [Pantaloon], Reliance etc.



Posted on 6 June 2008 | 5:59 am

12. Levis Upgrading Customers to Premium Brands
American Jeans retailer Levi's is eying to double the revenue share from premium denim brands in India from 5-6% previous year to 10-12% current year. Levi's has introduced four new product lines - Levi's Red Loop, Levi's Blue, Levi's Red and Levi's Vintage Clothing to achieve this target. All of the above are priced between Rs 4,000 to Rs 10,000.

Mr Shyam Shukla, Director Marketing of Levi's India said,


There is a major market for the premium segment of denim mainly due to increasing affluence of the middle class fueled by economic growth. An increasing number of people are willing to pay much more for a pair of jeans.

Levi's jeans is sold through 600 purchase points of which 175 are exclusive Levi's outlets. Delhi NCR and Mumbai are its biggest markets in India.



Posted on 31 May 2008 | 7:50 pm

13. Spencers Brand + Supply Chain Consolidation
With the retail dust settling down, companies have realized to look at their bottom line. RPG Group's Spencer's retail format is all set to consolidate 5 of its brands - Spencer's Hyper (30,000 to 75,000 sq ft) Spencer's Super (8,000-15,000 sq ft), Spencer's Daily (4,000-7,000 sq ft), Spencer's Express (1,000-1,500 sq ft) and Spencer's Fresh (1,200-2,000 sq ft) into just two - Spencer's Hyper and Spencers (3,000 to 15,000sq ft)

The company is refurbishing its existing 373 stores which will fall under the new brand identity - Spencers and 27 large formats under Spencers Hyper. One of the main reason for brand consolidation was the confusion it created amongst customers. These two brands will have uniform service level, look and feel. RPG also plans to consolidate its supply chain for both the formats under one common business unit.



Posted on 25 May 2008 | 4:47 am

14. Neiman Marcus + Reliance Retail
Reliance Retail [RR] with big retail dreams though slow on deployment front is striking deals globally as much as possible. RR's subsidiary, Reliance Brands is in talks with Neiman Marcus group.

Neiman Marcus group operates New York's 5th Avenue store - Bergdorf Goodman. This is considered as a premium lifestyle store. You may recall that in Dec-2007, we had an exclusive coverage on Reliance's tie-up with the Miss Sixty brands for the trendy Indian women.

We see a shift in Reliance's business model from grocery which was given the thrust from CMDs office towards Lifestyle retailing with higher margins. After facing resistance and realizing thin margins in Reliance Fresh, Mukesh decided to give more powers to individual business units like to make own decision on Real Estate procurement and striking brand deals. Only time will tell if Reliance can hit the 2010 goal of being the largest and most profitable retailer in India and then spin-off Reliance Retail into a separate listed entity.



Posted on 22 May 2008 | 7:29 am

15. UK's West Pioneer Malls in Tier-II Cities
The Indian Mall craze has spread to UK Developers as well. West Pioneer Properties, a UK based mall Developer is developing a 750,000 sft shopping mall at Kalyan. Big Bazaar has already booked its slot in this space and the first phase of 500,000 sft will open for business soon.

The company plans to invest Rs 3,000 crore and develop 10 malls within the next 3 years. West Pioneer malls will be branded as Metro Junction malls and will come up mainly in Tier-II cities in India.

Mr. Jayant, CEO said,


We aim to make shopping in malls affordable to shoppers in tier-II cities. The primary focus is the value-for-money segment and a majority of the space will be leased out to mass market brands.


The next Metro Junction malls will come up in Nashik and Aurangabad. It is scouting for land in Surat, Goa and Nagpur. The company will undertake the land acquisition while the cost of development will be financed by private equity and other sources.



Posted on 21 May 2008 | 2:03 pm

16. Luxury Market Spend Allocation
The potential for luxury retailing in India is large considering that Indians attach significant importance to brands. The market size is estimated to be at US$500 million and is growing at a rate of 35-40% p.a. The luxury watch market and branded jewelry each are growing at 40% p.a., and wine at 30%. The Pie chart below shows the breakup of Indian Luxury Retail Market.
Lifestyle and attitudinal changes, consumerism, and rising income levels will continue to provide growth momentum to the high-end brand retailing in the country. According to a recent industry report, there are about 1.6 million luxury households in India and this number is likely to cross 3 million by 2010. Each of these households earns about over US$100,000 per year and they spend about US$9,000 per year on luxury and high-premium goods.



Posted on 19 May 2008 | 9:17 am

17. Pantaloon's eZone plans Ambitious Expansion
Future Group's Electronics and Consumer Durable retailer eZone with turnover of Rs 750 crore [$185 mn] has lined up an ambitious expansion plan and is expecting to touch Rs 2,500
crore [$600 mn] turnover by 2010.

eZone opened its largest concept store in Bangalore. Mr. Manoj Kumar, CEO said,


This specialty retail has been growing at 30-40% YoY. The store takes the product experience to the next level, both for manufacturers and customers.

eZone concept stores are typically spread on 30,000 sft area and retails over 6,000 products and 250 brands of Indian and International electronics. If you walk into the Bangalore eZone, you will see 4 dedicated zones - Home Zone, Liberation Zone, Experience Zone and Future Zone.

Currently, their are 37 eZone stores 23 of which are standalone. Pantaloon retail plans to open concept stores in Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Kolkata. Each of them would entail an investment of Rs 10 crore.

Related Reading:
Tata Croma Electronics - Catalogue Shopping is Live



Posted on 17 May 2008 | 12:49 pm

18. Lee Cooper finds Value Segment ir-resistable
Lee Cooper jeans after having operated for over a year in India is finding it hard to resist from venturing into Value Segment Jeans. Lee Cooper's new brand for this segment will be known as "Famous Basics" and will compete against Signature from Levi's and Hero from Wrangler.


Mr. Ameet Panchal, CEO of Lee Cooper said,


There would be a new distribution set-up created for the value brand and its pricing would be along the same lines as the existing value based denim brands in the market.

Lee Cooper plans to increase the number of exclusive stores from 30 to 55 with an investment between Rs 25-30 crore. It also has presence in multi-brand stores as well as shop-in-shops. By the end of this year, they plan to have 600 point of sales across various formats in India.

Apart from retailing here in India, Lee Cooper now wants to focus on building India as a sourcing hub for global operations.



Posted on 13 May 2008 | 8:55 am

19. Manipal Cure & Care Plans Pharma Retail
Manipal Cure & Care is planning to venture into the retailing of pharmaceutical medicines. It already has wellness retail format under its brand. About 98% of Indian meds and pharma market is dominated by neighborhood chemists and druggists.

Of the 2% is controlled by organized retailers of which many are still in nascent stages of growth except Apollo and Subhiksha, present in multiple states but not PAN India. However these retailers are seeing 40% YoY growth, which is a good sign.

Other retailers in the market include Hetero Drugs, which owns 40 stores in Hyderabad and 20 in tier II pockets of the state. SuperMed retail is another chain focused on hospital and surgical consumables and other pharma products.



Posted on 8 May 2008 | 6:37 am

20. Shopper Stop Summer Discount Offer
Shoppers Stop has informed us about an exciting summer offer. As it is Time for trips and tours, Shopper Stop is offering a bonanza on the Big Summer Shopping Tour, starting 1st May 08 to 15th June 08, shop for Rs. 30,000 and get a Police Watch worth Rs. 7,400 absolutely free. [Terms and Conditions]

You can shop in one go or spread it over multiple visits till 15th June 08. This offer is valid at all Shoppers Stop, Mothercare & Arcelia stores across India. So visit The Big Summer Shopping Tour and get time on your hands!!



Posted on 2 May 2008 | 12:20 pm

21. Kaya Skin clinics + Life centers.
Kaya now has 65 clinics, including nine in the Middle East, with a target of opening 15 new clinics every year. The company added 10 clinics during Q4FY2008. Are you now wondering what kind of Revenues Marico must be generating from the Kaya brand ? It has reported a revenue of Rs 100 crore, yes that's correct $25 mn. Kaya
fairness day cream and Kaya fairness night cream were added to its existing product basket, which contributes around 13% to Kaya's revenues.

Kaya expanded beyond skin care solutions by introducing Kaya Life that offers weight loss and wellness solutions. On the back of extensive response from Kaya customers, the company opened two more Kaya Life clinics in Mumbai during Q4FY2008.



Posted on 30 April 2008 | 3:25 pm

22. Catalogue for customer convenience
Catalogue retailing is slowly catching up in India. Infiniti's Croma was the first one to test it out during last festival season in Pune and Mumbai. Mr. Ajit Joshi of Croma Electronics said,


Catalogs are add-on-media and we think it works best within a particular catchment or city. Catalogues enable one to exactly zero in on the desired item to look before purchasing it.


For example, lets say someone is considering buying a Refrigerator. It normally takes a customer 30-45 minutes to look into and decide. However, with catalogues already sent to the customer, the customer zeroes in on two/three models and will complete his transaction within 15 minutes.

Catalogues help in advertising new product range on offer and services like extended warranty and other in-store promotions. Also for any retailer that has a large loyal customer base, mailing these catalogs is very effective marketing tool.

However, what we fail to understand is retailers don't embrace the power of Internet. They have poorly designed websites or some don't even bother to have them [Reliance Retail]. Any affluent shopper will definitely have access to the Internet and retailers should embrace the new media.



Posted on 24 April 2008 | 3:50 am

23. US Pizaa localizing fast food
US Pizza under rapid $125 mn expansion spree has announced that it will now localize its offering and is launching two more brands to cater to the fast food lovers.

The company has announced the launch of ToastyZ sandwich brand and will open its first outlet 3 weeks from now in Hyderabad. These outlets would take the form of small cafes that serve coffee, tea, drinks and sandwiches made of multi grain bread and baguettes.

The other yet unnamed brand will get off the ground in late Q2 will be a localized Indian fast food.

Mr. Akbar Khwaja, MD of US Pizza said,


In India fast food is fragmented. It could be a "Vada Pao" in one region, a "Kathi" roll in another. Our fast food can be packed, edible on the go, non messy and in the Indian context could mean "Samosa", "Kachodi", "Stuffed Parota" or "Vada Pao".

Jumbo King is the only food retail chain that is currently offering localized fast food.The company hopes to run 1,000 outlets in the next 3 years. 45% of them will be takeaway and express counters while 20-25% is likely to be dine-in formats.



Posted on 23 April 2008 | 7:05 am

24. Kolkata Knight Riders launch Tag Heuer Watches
With the beginning of IPLT20 league matches in India, brand retailing has kicked off. King Khan along with Juhi Chawla of the Kolkata Knight Riders have launched TAG Heuer professionals sports watch for Cricketers in India.

Vijay Mallya of Royal Challengers had approached Aditya Birla Group for the manufacture of branded apparel through its Lifestyle brand, Louis Phillipe. The Louis-Phillipe Royal Challengers collection was unveiled in Bangalore last night and will be available in all Louis Phillipe showrooms shortly.



Posted on 23 April 2008 | 6:50 am

25. Bharti Easy Day Store Pictures
Bharti Wal-Mart neighborhood supermarket opened shop under the brand name "Easy Day". The launch was a very low profile one mainly to put-off resistance from local vendors. [Learning from Reliance and Wal-Mart's lessons] Also, Sunil Mittal promoter of Bharti group who hails from the strictly vegetarian Marwari community will face resistance from them because of stocking meat in Easy Day stores. We have exclusive photographs of the store, for the first time in any print and global media.


Store at Model Town Extension.

Another Store at Dugri Urban Estate
















Posted on 21 April 2008 | 7:57 am

26. How Vishal is wooing Kiranas on its side ?
It is well known fact that no Government in India want to put the Kirana [Small neighborhood grocery stores] out of business. In a situation where Food Bazaar, Reliance Fresh, Spencers, Subhiksha, More For You retail, etc are competing with Kiranas, Vishal retail has chalked out a strategy to embrace the same. Here is a case study which our analyst has conducted about Vishal Retail with Kiranas.

• Vishal Retail will takeover the supply chain of Kirana stores and provide them with technology, new practices, visual merchandising skill and special promotional schemes on offer in Vishal Megamart
• Vishal will offer a minimum guarantee to all Kirana stores
• The partnership will help Kiranas survive the onslaught of organized retail
• Vishal hopes to build a strong goodwill with these Kiranwalas. However, the going will not be so easy as Kiranas in cities like Bangalore and Kolkata are already flocking to Metro Cash'n'Carry.
Vishal however thinks its a win-win situation as it can expand fast under this franchise model and take on Future Group, Reliance, Bharti-Wal-Mart. The deal will spare Vishal Retail of the pain of acquiring real estate, dealing with abnormally high attrition rates and pilferage in the store. Looking at it in another way, Vishal wants to enter the Cash'N'Carry format like Costco and Sams Club by servicing Kiranas. Its good that atleast someone is thinking out of the box in the heard mentality of Indian retailers :-)



Posted on 9 April 2008 | 4:47 pm

27. On Future Brands + Future Logistics of Pantaloon
Future Brands, a subsidiary of Pantaloon [PRIL] plans to not only take existing PRIL private labels national but also do brand consulting and launch international brands in India. Future Brands plans to select some of PRIL's private label brands such as John Miller and take them national by launching both Exclusive Brand Outlets and selling through multi brand outlets. Future Brands will focus on building the brand and appoint a national distributor for each brand to roll out distribution. For John Miller, the company has appointed Indus League as their national distributor.

Future Logistics is likely to manage PRIL's entire supply chain from supplier to store warehouse for a fee that is likely to be lower than PRIL's existing supply chain cost. PRIL has already transferred all its existing 40 warehouse operations to Future Logistics. The immediate action plan for Future Logistics is to consolidate the number of warehouses to around 6-7 in the next 2-3 years and simultaneously bring in supply chain efficiencies in apparel sourcing. It is implementing conveyor systems to alter the delivery of apparels in cartons to hangers. This should not only reduce the operational cost but also improve inventory management, thereby reducing working capital required to run the business. Future Logistics currently has 2 msf of warehouse space, the plan is to build nearly 8 msf over the next 3-5 years.



Posted on 8 April 2008 | 9:05 am

28. Future Bazaar + Future Media: New Kids of Pantaloon
Future Bazaar is PRIL's internet-based retailing company. The company is expected to have clocked revenues of around Rs200 mn in February and March 2008 itself. The company is also combining the online portal with catalogue retailing through kiosks located in malls and shopping centres. The company has also launched a small 300 sq ft store branded as Big Bazaar Unlimited in Dombivali where consumers canbrowse catalogues as well as place orders on the internet with Future Bazaar. The pilot store already contributes to around 10% of Future Bazaar's revenues. PRIL has already received private equity funding for Future Bazaar.

Future Media is going slow on LCD TV roll out as it believes that rentals demanded by retailing and real estate companies are likely to make the business unviable. However, it is hopeful that rentals will slide as sanity will prevail in the market. The company is expanding its business by managing ads in movie halls and advertising in malls. Future Media is expected to clock around Rs350 mn in revenues in F2008, with around 75% of its revenues likely to be generated from the space rented by PRIL. Future Media does not generate any revenues from PRIL.



Posted on 7 April 2008 | 8:10 am

29. On Pantaloon's Home Solutions
Home Solutions is 75% owned by Pantaloon Retail India Ltd. Home Solutions Retail is their very successful format of Home Improvement stores, expects to break even in F2009. The roll out plan is on track and the most successful format for the company has surprisingly been the consumer electronics store, E-zone. Given the company intends to spin off its subsidiaries once they get to a certain size, we believe Pantaloon could potentially unlock value in Home Solutions through a listing in the next three years.



Posted on 6 April 2008 | 8:06 am

30. Spencer's move the Specialty way
India's first and leading retailer RPG Spencer's has turned its attention towards specialty retailing - MusicWorld [Music and home video and accessories], Books & Beyond [Books, Home Videos and Stationaries] and RPG Cellucom [Mobile Phones and Accessories].


The Music World chain is doing extremely well according to company sources as they have seen a growth rate of 14% YoY and they claim is above the industry average. This brand currently has 100 stores in 42 cities and 150 shop-in-shops. This chain had a turnover of Rs 100 crore for Fy07-08.

Mr. K.Das, President of Spencer's Retail said,


We currently have 160 RPG Cellucom stores in 15 cities. With the focus on Tier-II cities now we target to take the total number of stores to 500 by the end of this financial year.

As far as Books & Beyond stores, the company currently has just 3 stores in Bengaluru, Kolkata and Gurgaon. They plan to add 7 more by the end of this fiscal taking tht total tally to 10. They are still testing the waters on how to make this brand more interesting and successful in the market.



Posted on 5 April 2008 | 3:35 pm

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