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Vol. 2 Issue 5 - May 2007
In this Issue
Featured Product
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International
India continues to hold international retailers’ interest. Starbucks has made a fresh application, and hopes to have a store in India by the end of the year. Carrefour, in the meanwhile, has postponed its India plans.
Chillibreeze Research Team
 Rewe tests Indian retail market
Calvin Klein to enter Indian market
Starbucks applies again
Louis Vuitton in process of buying 20% share of Hidesign
Carrefour postpones India plans
HR News
The retail sector is living up to its promise of becoming one of the country’s big employers. With a large employee base, come attendant issues like unions and attrition. HR, therefore, has a big role to play in how the sector shapes up.
Chillibreeze Research Team
Retailers finding ways to retain top talent
Big Bazaar decides to re-employ sacked staff
Reliance Retail restructuring management
One million people required in organized retail Retail boom translates to increased retail courses in business schools
HR is the name of the game
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Editorial
The real joy of tracking a high impact sector like retail is in seeing the development its ripple effect leaves in its wake. The growth of the retail sector has oiled the wheels for employment, in turn triggering off a series of courses offered to train up employees. As complements to the sector’s primary activities, unique formats are also emerging. E-Commerce (B2C), which had flickered briefly earlier, is slowly glowing again. This time round, the systems are in place to ensure a smoother ride. So, is it going to be smooth sailing all through?
Tall oaks from little ACORNs grow! Wade Rathke, chief organiser of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) has been a frequent visitor to India ever since the retail sector was opened to FDI. He may be here to mobilise opinion against Wal-Mart, but the essence of the argument hits out at all large retailers, including homespun majors like Reliance or the Future Group.
 Chillibreeze Research Team
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Big players – Plans and Investments |
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Here is an interesting trend we spotted – not content with adding colour to the traditional retail landscape, several big players are looking at means to supplement and complement their big plans. Sample this: The Future group offers financial services, while Reliance has plans for an e-commerce venture and perhaps even used car sales.
Chillibreeze Research Team |
Big Players...
 Reliance Retail might go in for used car sales
Bharti plans three-tier model
Future Group offers consumer finance services
Reliance Retail gets ready to unveil e-commerce venture Future Brands plans to recreate private labels
Reliance is highest bidder for Park Circus market
Pantaloon net up by 73% for Jan-Mar quarter
Wal-Mart: Small retailers are here to stay
Birla’s retail venture to start in June
Birla Retail likely to drop Trinethra brand name
Wal-Mart attracts small women owned businesses for development venture
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Unique Formats |
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Niche categories with their focused strategies seem to be doing well. Thanks to changing lifestyles and increasing girth, the plus size market is growing. Thrift, however, is a quality that doesn’t change too easily. Ergo, discount malls seem to hold big promise.
Chillibreeze Research Team
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Unique Formats...
Retailers taste success in catering to plus-size market Shoppers’ Stop and Nuance Group bag retail concession at Hyderabad airport
Discount malls galore
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Apparel & Footwear |
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The women’s wear market is seeing some growth. In response to busy lifestyles and little time to get custom made clothes, the ready to wear segment is set to boom. Quick to snap up opportunities, apparel majors are focusing on western wear and plus size apparel.
Chillibreeze Research Team
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Apparel & Footwear...
Raymond to expand retail footprint
Arvind Brands to open 13 Nautica stores
aLL to increase presence
Raymond looks to dress women too
Women’s wear market sees a rush
Feedback
We continue inching forward; always learning more about the sector that has India interested and excited. Our Retail Newsletter, is being downloaded nearly through the month…more importantly, we have an increasing number of readers posting a query on our site India Reports (www.india-reports.com). This is feedback of another kind; it keeps us on the roll, thinking and analyzing as we answer these queries, and prepares us to move on to the next level with new reports and analysis.
You can help us by sending your suggestions … how do we become the preferred newsletter in the Retail space?
Write to us:
epublishing@chillibreeze.com
In an effort to build our retail bouquet of information on India Reports, we have initiated a Consumer Reports section, where you can put up your views of and experiences at retail outlets…the good and the bad (http://www.india-reports.com/biz-buz.aspx.). We plan to feature some of these contributions in our future issues.
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General Trends & Information |
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Finally, an answer to the question we have asked for some time now – just how many malls can succeed and thrive? While Reliance, Bharti and Walmart would have small stores in different areas, driving retail growth; malls with their sheer size could find it difficult to break even. Meanwhile, watch out for dynamic rates for your everyday purchases!
Chillibreeze Research Team |
General Trends & Information...
Shopping malls mania could lead to glut
Retailer band together to raise quality standards
Dynamic pricing comes to consumer retail
Organized retail share expected to rise to 20%
Cash and Carry format facing the brunt of the protests
 Buy our Omnibus edition featuring 4 Retail Reports covering the fast growing retail scene in India. >> updated March 2007
Buy our just published reports on the Cheese and Wine Industry in India.
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Strategy |
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Footfalls were the big metric some time ago. Today, strategists work harder to achieve conversion rates. Like we have said before, collaboration and tie-ups to offer a unique experience to the consumer will always win.
Chillibreeze Research Team |
Strategy...
Big Bazaar to play BIG 92.7 FM radio in its stores
Specialty malls could be the key to retail success
Local stores get proactive to compete with the big guns of retail
Pantaloon and Yash Raj Films tie up for merchandising
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Regional Trends |
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Retailers continue to enlarge their national footprint by entering new markets. Major problems like space are being dealt with by planning outlets in the outskirts. This has an important fall-out - cities are growing, and smaller towns looking in on the fringes have become centres of attention. Way to grow!
Chillibreeze Research Team |
Regional Trends...
Retailers focus on Kolkata
Reliance Retail opens in Ahemadabad, plans to open 180 stores in Gujarat
Reliance Fresh opens additional stores in Jaipur
RPG makes retail plans for Orissa
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FMCG, Food & Grocery |
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Food and Grocery stores work by different metrics too. New kids on the block are learning that footfalls and stampede for vegetables and fruit do not a profit make. Profits are made by increasing the average bill size, with a healthy grocery / perishables product mix.
Chillibreeze Research Team |
FMCG, Food & Grocery...
Coca-Cola to open lounges
Subhiksha aims for Rs. 30 billion by 2008
Large-scale organized retail shaking things up for small fast food chains
Reliance Fresh adds groceries
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