Stay abreast of the fast moving economic super-power — India!
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Stay abreast of the fast moving economic super-power — India!
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Retail News June 2007Big players – Plans and Investments: Reliance, Birla’s keen on buying out Piramyd, Birla Group to launch new brandGeneral Trends & Information: Mom-&-Pop retailers, Metro plans training centers, Revenue sharing deals aplentyInternational: Starbucks, Specialty retailers, Arvind Mills, Marks & Spencer, Wal-MartUnique Formats: Wadhwan Foods, Godrej to focus on rural marketSupport Industries: Oak Investment, Retail design firm, Wal-Mart likely to use MumbaiRegional Trends: Convenience store boom in Delhi, Commissariat Road, Heritage FoodsHR News: Bharti and Global Retail School tie up, Retail sectorFood & Grocery: Food retailers, Big Apple, Subhiksha, Food BazaarApparel & Footwear: Provogue to launch, Levi Strauss Signature, Arvind Mills, Hidesign plans
Big players – Plans and InvestmentsReliance to launch Rs. 30 billion home solutions chain Reliance Industries is reportedly lining up a Rs. 30 billion venture for the home segment, but is trying to keep it under wraps. It’s retail division will be opening 100 standalone stores for the home segment, with each store being in the range of 40,000-60,000 sq ft of retail space. A name for this new segment has not yet been decided, the first five of which will be opened in December. Some of these new home solutions stores will also be located in the company’s hypermarket chain as a shop-in-shop format. Reliance will be opening its first hypermarket in Ahmedabad in August and a second in Jamnagar in October. Although a senior Reliance Retail person source has admitted that the segment will be given a brand name within the next 10 days and will have a design studio as part of the store. Some information suggests that these new stores are being modeled on the lines of a mixture of Ikea and ACE Hardware. Manu Kapur, who was earlier the merchandising head of Ikea India, has been recruited to head this venture. Nalin Khanna, who currently heads the home furniture section of Reliance, will be second in command. Source: The Economic Times Birla’s keen on buying out Piramyd The Aditya Birla Group is reportedly keen on buying out Piramyd Retail, which is part of the Piramal Group and estimated at Rs. 1.04 billion and recorded a loss of Rs. 70 million in the 2006 financial year. Piramyd Retail has 7 Piramyd department store outlets and 14 Trumart grocery stores at present. Piramyd has been in decline for the past few years, although it was considered a strong competitor to Shopper’s Stop and Pantaloon at one time. The lack of strong leadership and a fuzzy focus are some of the reasons the retailer has not been able to keep up with its competitors. Source: The Economic Times Street vegetable vendors up in arms against Reliance Local vegetable vendors in Ranchi who operate on the street gathered together to protest against Reliance Retail as their business has been severely affected due to the company offering lower prices. Even though these vendors might be unhappy with the situations, consumers are happy with the low prices of fruits and vegetables at Reliance Fresh stores. Source: DNA India
Birla Group to launch new brand The Aditya Birla Group will be launching its new retail brand, which will be spearheaded by the Trinethra stores, which the company had bought earlier this year. The first store will be opened in Pune in June under the new brand. Trinethra’s stores will be re-branded as well. The Birla Group is planning to open 20-25 stores in each city that it sets up shop and will start is hypermarket division next year. The company has hired several retail merchandisers from Reliance Retail and some senior executives for its top management. Source: The Hindu Business Line Reliance Retail’s entry to Bengal might be delayed Reliance Retail’s plans for Bengal could be delayed due to political uncertainties as the All India Forward Bloc (AIFB), which controls the Agriculture Ministry is putting up resistance against the plan to procure agri-products directly from farmers. Reliance has already selected several pieces of property for its Reliance Fresh stores. Source: The Hindu Business Line RPG looking for international brands RPG Group owned Spencer’s Retail is keen on tying up with an international lifestyle brand and is holding talks with several firms who deal with apparel, footwear, luxury retail and lifestyle products. Spencer’s Retail accounts for 8% of the company’s overall turnover. Other RPG brands are Music World, RPG Cellucom, and Books & Beyond. Source: Business Standard Birla’s retail brand to be called More The Aditya Birla Group unveiled its brand which is to be called More. The store will be launched in both the supermarket and hypermarket formats, with the first store opening next month in Pune. Sumant Sinha, CEO of Aditya Birla Retail said that the company chose Pune for its great combination of all elements from the company’s target markets. Source: The Economic Times Bharti denies any problems in JV with Wal-Mart Bharti reiterated that it was still finalizing details of its joint venture with Wal-Mart and denied any problems in the agreement or with Wal-Mart as has been reported in the media. Akhil Gupta, Bharti’s managing director, said that it was just a matter of time till the agreement was completed. Source: Reuters Reliance Retail’s first hypermarket to open by July Bijou Kurien, President and Chief Executive of Lifestyle Reliance announced that Reliance Retail’s first hypermarket should open by July in Bangalore, under the name Reliance Mart. The store will cover 180,000 sq ft of space and will offer food, consumer durable, apparel and footwear under the same roof. The company’s second hypermarket will open in Gujarat. Most hypermarkets will range from 40,000 to 200,000 sq ft. Source: The Hindu Business Line Wal-Mart insists that its entry will benefit India The world’s largest retailer insists that its presence in India will be beneficial to India and says that its goal is to forge a relationship with the small business community, partnering with them and teaching them how to lower costs and increase profits. Kevin Gardner, senior manager for international corporate affairs for Wal-Mart stressed that the company would only be entering the wholesale sector, while it’s partner in India Bharti will have a retail venture. On the issue he said that, "While Bharti, our joint venture partner in cash-and-carry, has announced its intention to enter into retail, it needs to be clearly understood that this is a separate, wholly owned and managed Bharti venture. Unfortunately, wholesale and retail are often confused resulting in unwarranted speculation and misinformation." Source: Rediff
General Trends & InformationMom-&-Pop retailers becoming brand managers Local retailers are being appointed by larger chains as brand managers, for their knowledge of the local market and hands-on approach. Some of the brands that have used this approach are Hidesign, Canary Blue, United Colors of Benetton and Adidas. Benetton offers two options; setting up and running the store or only managing the store. Source: The Economic Times Metro plans training centers for kirana store owners Metro Cash & Carry will be starting a training school for kirana stores, in an effort to strengthen them and their business practices to take on the competition from organized retailers. The company already runs such a training school in Turkey. Kirana stores are the company’s main partners, according to Geraro Monzillo, the deputy managing director for Metro Cash & Carry India, which is why they see the potential in their becoming more efficient and organized. Source: The Economic Times Manufactures get upset over discounts given by retailers Manufacturers from several sectors including FMCG, consumer durables and others are protesting the widespread use of giving discounts to customers at organized retail stores. According to one retail expert, "Discount offers provided by organised retail chains are increasingly eating into the small retailers' pie. Thus, creating a problem for manufacturers, since it is the smaller players that drive bulk of their sales, in spite of the hype around the retail boom." FritoLay has even stopped supplies to Big Bazaar and Food Bazaar stores for the past few weeks to make the retailer stop selling its products at lower prices. Manufacturers in other segments such as consumer durables are also putting the pressure on retailers, but organized retailers are not succumbing to the pressure as they are already quite used to it. Source: The Hindu Business Line Large retailers pull in mom-&-pop retailers Several large retailers are bringing in small mom-&-pop retailers to open up as many streams of revenue as possible, and will help in building the image of the large retailer as a good and compassionate company. These partnerships between large retailers and small stores are also due to the competitive prices being offered by cash and carry stores. A Reliance Retail official added that, “We are also exploring the franchisee model to partner with the smaller stores in segments like food & beverages, farm products, FMCG, pharmaceuticals, lifestyle, apparels and footwear.” Metro is building its base of small retail stores by offering special discounts and training systems to improve their competitiveness. Source: The Economic Times New CII chief Sunil Mittal defends organized retail Addressing his first press conference as the president of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Sunil Mittal said that retail is expected to grow to a $500 billion industry in India in the next 10 years, of which organized retail will only account for $100 billion and the balance of growth will take place in the unorganized sector. Currently, the retail industry is worth $300 billion. He added that small retailers across the world have not been eradicated with the growth of organized retail, and in the US even grew by 2%. He addressed the concerns of people losing jobs and countered that retail will require even more people than ever before, not only in stores but for packing labeling, logistics etc. Regarding Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s remarks to curb high salaries, he said that these were an indication of the shortage of quality professionals. Source: The Hindu Business Line Revenue sharing deals aplenty With prime retail space being a pricey commodity, brands are coming up with new ways to share revenue with mall owners, so that they can use some prime retail space. Indus Clothing is in talks with malls to come up with a profit-sharing arrangement that benefits both sides. Pepe Jeans uses a multi-pronged approach and has properties that are owned, leased to optimize its market potential. According to Anand Sundaram, vice president operations of Inorbit Mall in Mumbai, “Currently, 15-20 per cent of the revenue of Inorbit Mall at Malad, a Mumbai suburb, comes through the revenue-sharing model, while more than 80 per cent of the revenues from the new mall at Vashi, in Navi Mumbai, would be garnered through the same avenue.” Source: Business Standard Communist party toughens stance on Wal-Mart entry The Communist party toughened its stance against the entry of Wal-Mart into the Indian retail sector and asked the government to set up a licensing system for retail chains to prevent international companies such as Wal-Mart from entering the market. The party members have been protesting the entry of the company, as it would render millions of small shopkeepers and workers jobless and have serious social costs on society. Source: Calcutta News Industry not in favor of allowing foreign equity in retail Indian industry on the whole is not in favor of the government permitting foreign equity in the retail sector, and would prefer to have foreign equity only in a calibrated manner that would allow domestic companies to prepare and face the competition. According to an Assocham statement, "The chamber's blue-print on organised retail is influenced by its members from a cross-section of industry in domestic retailing that it surveyed on opening up of domestic retail to 100 percent equity." Source: The Economic Times Birla CEO: ‘Foreign partners don’t really add value in retail’ In an interview with Rediff Money, Sumant Sinha, CEO of the Aditya Birla Retail venture said that a foreign equity partner does not add significant value to a venture. He also stated that since retail is a local business, stores should hire people from the local community. The company that just unveiled its brand More recently plans to offer convenience to its shoppers by being in locations where customers can easily walk to the stores. He emphasized that knowing the customer was very important as people are not really looking for a lot of choice, but rather come prepared with a list and already know what they want to buy. Source: Rediff Money Gen-X is fueling the retail drive The drivers of the retail boom in India are said to be generation X shoppers. According to a study titled ‘YouSoumerism-Youth in India: Opportunity Knocks’ conducted by Ernst & Young, more than 50% of consumers in India are less than 25 years of age and these consumers have both purchasing power and a thirst for buying products. Ashok Rajgopal director (retail industry) for Ernst & Young said, “By targeting the youth population in India, retailers will be investing for the future as they will be able to influence and create loyalty from the start.” The study also differentiates between the youth living in larger cities from those living in rural areas and smaller cities. Source: Gulf Times InternationalStarbucks reassures govt that it is following the rules Starbucks reassured the government that it is following the rules in entirety and will not be selling more than 2.5% of its gross revenues in the first five years. Starbucks has applied to enter under the single brand format, to sell not only its world famous coffee, but also its assortment of merchandise such as CDs, coffee accessories, grinders, gift items etc. Source: The Economic Times Specialty retailers not so keen on India as yet While supermarket and hypermarket companies are flocking to India, specialty store retailers are still not showing too much interest in opening stores in the country until FDI rules are changed. Some of the prominent names that will be staying away are Gap, H&M, Zara, Office Depot and Target. One of the main reasons that specialty retailers are not rushing to open in India is given by Akil Hirani, managing partner of law firm, Majumdar & Company, who says that “In the retail business, companies tend to develop certain internal intellectual properties, which they are not comfortable sharing. If a company has to franchise its business, it will have to share some critical information and data with the franchisee.” Source: The Economic Times Arvind Mills to bring in Diesel Arvind Mills and Diesel, an Italian denimwear company, have signed a joint venture to launch the Diesel brand in India. The new joint venture company will be called Diesel India Fashion and will be operated by Arvind Mills who will control 49%. Diesel will hold the majority share of 51%. With the entry of Diesel, the majority of international denim brands will have a presence in India. Other brands are Gas, Guess, Levi Strauss, Lee, and Wrangler. Source: Business Standard Marks & Spencer makes ambitious plans for India, China UK based department store chain; Marks & Spencer has made aggressive plans of expansion for India and China. The company’s chief executive Stuart Rose unveiled its international expansion plans after he announced that the company had achieved a pre-tax profit of GBP 965.2 million till March 31, 2007. The company has set up stores in India via a franchising agreement and will be setting its international plan in November this year. Source: DNA India Office Depot to open stores in India via franchises The world’s largest stationery and office supply store, Office Depot will be setting up stores in India using a franchising agreement. The company has reportedly been studying the market for the last three years and had been hoping that the government would open up FDI policies to allow it to come as a wholly owned subsidiary. There has been a lot in interest in this segment, especially since the government was keen to open up FDI up to 51% for stationary and office supplies stores. Staples, another larger US based office supplies retailer, has tied up with Future Group and there has been a lot of interest from other companies as well. Source: The Economic Times Wal-Mart advised small retailers to “learn to change” The world’s larger retailer said that smaller retailers should “learn to change” and create a niche for themselves rather than compete with the large retailers like Wal-Mart. A Wal-Mart official speaking to a TV news channel said that, "What we have found is that these mom-n-pop stores choose to compete with large companies head-to-head instead of finding a niche or specialisation. "They will struggle, they might succeed, but it's likely they'll struggle. So they have to learn to change in order to survive." Source: CNN-IBN Landmark Group to bring in foreign brands Dubai based Landmark Group will be bringing in more foreign brands, adding to the four brands that the company has already tied up with. One of the new brands will be an international women’s footwear brand and will be for the mid-market segment, competing with brands such as Soles and Citywalk. The company has already tied up with Kappa, Springfield, Bossini and Joseph Seibel. These Landmark brands have 30 stores in the country and will be opening 6 stores every month as well as adding 5 malls to the Lifestyle department chain, which at present stands at 12 stores in the country. Source: Business Standard Italian leather brand, Blue & Blues on expansion spree Blue and Blues (B&B) is aggressively pursuing its expansion plans for India and is aiming for a turnover of Rs. 400 million in the next three years. The company will also be introducing new products and increasing its stores. The company is especially keen on tying up with companies for corporate gifts, and has already tied up with Citibank and Elle. Source: Business Standard Gulf firms keen on Indian retail Private companies from the Gulf region are busy heading to India to enter its bustling retail sector. A lot of companies are wary to making too sudden as move, as while there is lots of opportunity, there are many problems as yet, due to lack of infrastructure, language problems, the vast size of the country, and the lack of retail talent. Source: Indiatimes.com Unique FormatsRetail majors target Mumbai’s new airport for retail opportunities Some of the leading retail firms, including the Tata Group, RIL, Reliance ADAG, GVK Group and Larsen and Toubro are bidding for the Navi Mumbai airport project. International companies in the fray include Dnata, which is promoted by the Emirates Group, and Singapore’s Changi Airport International (CAI). Source: Business Standard Wadhwan Foods offers non-store format with Sangam Direct Wadhawan Foods will be testing the market out with Sangam Direct before it opens is regular retail stores called Spinach in the market. The company will be adding wet groceries like frozen foods, fruits and vegetables to its products at Sangam Direct. Call centers will now be directing calls to the closest Spinach stores instead of warehouses to fulfill home delivery orders. Source: The Hindu Business Line Godrej to focus on rural market Godrej Agrovet is expanding its rural retail format Aadhaar, where farmers and rural customers can get everything they need, from food to electronics and more. The company will be setting up additional Aadhaar stores, with each store taking in a Rs. 200,000-500,000 investment. At present the company has 46 stores and plans to increase this number to 120 by the end of this financial year. Source: NDTV Profit Support IndustriesOak Investment to start $200 million retail fund Oak Investment Partners, a US based venture fund announced that it will be launching a $200 million retail fund. Jacob Kurien, the former COO of Tanishq and the CEO of a prominent food chain are two of the high profile entrants into the firm. Operations in India will start sometime in the beginning of next year. Jerry Gallagher, general partner of Oak visited the country recently and went to several of the malls in the metros and held several meetings with mall developers and retailers on this venture. Source: The Economic Times Retail design firm WD Partners to open office in India US based WD Partners, an architectural and retail design firm has opened an office in Mumbai with a team of 25 architects and engineers. The operations in India will be increased to 105 professionals in two years. On the company’s entry to India, Chris Doerschlag, CEO of WD Partners, said "It made sense to expand into a city where retail is expected to grow very quickly over the next decade." WD Partners has been in this business for 39 years and its client list includes high profile companies such as BP, The Home Depot, ExxonMobil, Gap, D’Angelo, Abercrombie & Fitch, Safeway, Wendy’s and Starbucks. It’s Mumbai operations will be headed by Rajesh Chhablani, an architect who has worked on international projects for retailers such as Gap and Victoria’s Secret. Source: The Economic Times
Wal-Mart likely to use Mumbai based company for logistics Wal-Mart is holding talks with Mumbai based Radhakrishna Group for either a tie up or acquiring stake in its logistics division, Radhakrishna Foodland. Senior Wal-Mart executives have reportedly visited the company’s logistic facilities and are discussing what kind of partnership could be worked out. Radhakrishna Foodland initially was an in-house logistics company but now provides services to some of the top retailers as well as other companies, including Pantaloon, Metro Cash and Carry, McDonalds, Subway, Pizza Hut, Cadbury, ITC and many more. Source: The Economic Times Regional TrendsConvenience store boom in Delhi New convenience stores and supermarkets are opening in Delhi at every second corner and it is estimated that there will be a supermarket for every half-mile in the city by 2010 when the Commonwealth Games are to take place. Compared to a few years ago, there were only 5 supermarkets per half-mile in 2004. Customers are happily switching to these modern stores due to its air-conditioned comfort and long shopping hours that suit most working professionals. Big Apple is one such convenience store chain that is taking advantage of this sentiment and has opened 22 stores in the city in the past two years, and will be continuing to open stores in an aggressive manner. Source: DNA India
Commissariat Road, Bangalore is the next retail hotspot The country’s hottest new retail spot is Bangalore’s Commissariat Road, which has a daily gross of Rs. 45 million. Spaces are very limited here, but nearby Vittal Mallya Road is also a good bet for retail. This one street in Bangalore has seen higher sales than any other place in the country, significantly higher than NCRs Mehrauli-Gurgaon Road with Rs. 36 million and Bombay’s Malad Link Road at Rs. 29 million. Retail is big business in Bangalore, growing at an annual rate of 45% and is on the preferred city and launch list for most retailers. One reason for its success is its central location. There are pitfalls though, as the street lacks a high street atmosphere and has no cafés as Brigade Road does. Source: The Economic Times Heritage Foods to set up two retail outlets in Chennai Hyderabad based Heritage Foods announced that it will be opening two pilot stores in Chennai. The company has 20 stores at present, of which 15 are in Hyderabad, three in Bangalore and two in Chennai. According to S Jagdish, Vice President (Retail) for Heritage Foods, the stores in Chennai have been merchandised according to consumer preferences for the area. Source: The Hindu Business Line HR NewsBharti and Global Retail School tie up Bharti Retail and Chandigarh based Global Retail School have tied up to train manpower for the retail industry, through a wholly owned subsidiary Bharti Resources. According to Sanjeev Duggal, CEO and Executive Director of Bharti Resources, "We have entered into a strategic partnership with the Global Retail School to bring modern skills, knowledge and progressive training to create employability for young people in the growing retail sector of India." The company will also be training manpower in other fields such as insurance and telecom, where Bharti has significant interests as well. Bharti and GRS plan to train 15,000 students in a variety of courses covering, retail management, sales and marketing, visual merchandising, space planning, logistics, store operations and much more. Source: The Economic Times Retailers opt for temp workers Retailers are looking to weekend temps to help with the rush of customers over the weekend. It’s mostly students who are opting for temping on the weekends, to earn some extra money, have a fun experience and even gain some recognition. Pantaloon and Big Bazaar are both using students from their retail courses to work on the weekends. Other companies such as Wills Lifestyle, Shoppers’ Stop have already signed up to get temporary workers for the weekends. Source: The Economic Times Retail sector to pull talent from other sectors The retail sector’s shortage of talent is likely to lead to professionals from other fields such as telecom, finance and IT to migrate to it. It has been estimated that the retail sector is facing a shortage of about 2-3 million people, which will be required in the next few years. But since the industry is still in its early stages, there still needs to be some structure set to it as yet. Source: IBNlive.com Food & GroceryFood retailers prefer to link directly to farmers Retailers in India prefer to form direct links with farmers and completely cut out all the middlemen. According to a recent study by PG Chengappa, Vice Chancellor of the University of Agriculture Sciences in Bangalore, food retail chains (FRCs) prefer to work with medium to large farmers who have 2-5 hectares of land. Source: The Hindu Business Line Big Apple to set up 100 stores Express Retail Services announced that it will be expanding its convenience store chain Big Apple, and will be opening 100 stores by August this year. The company has 25 Big Apple stores at present and work on a similar principle as the US based 7-Eleven stores. Average stores are in the range of 1,500 to 1,800 sq ft and stock more than 2,500 products. Source: The Economic Times Subhiksha to source bulk of vegetables from Nashik Chennai based food and grocery retailer, Subhiksha will be sourcing half of its fruits and vegetables from its Centralized Processing Unit (CPU) in Nashik. The company has 750 retail stores, with 105 located in the state of Maharashtra, 75 in Mumbai, 15 in Pune, 6 in Nashik and 6 in Aurangabad. Subhiksha sells an average of 5-6 tones of fruit and vegetable per day. The company will be adding 250 stores in the next few months, with each store stocking around 4,000 items. Source: Business Standard Food Bazaar interested in dealing with farmers directly Future Group’s food retailing division, Food Bazaar is keen on forming direct relationships in the form of contract farming with farmers, which is expected to cut the cost of its farm products by 20%. At present, only 20% of produce is sourced directly from farmers, which the company wants to increase to 50% by next year. Source: Business Standard Apparel & FootwearProvogue to launch 20 Promart stores Provogue India Ltd. announced that it will be opening 20 additional Promart stores over the coming three years. Promart is the value or low priced chain of department stores from the Provogue brand, and merchandise here will sell for 30-35% discount from regular prices. The first of these stores was launched last week in Ahmedabad. The product mix will be 85% apparel and the balance non-apparel merchandise. Source: Business Standard Levi Strauss Signature keen to be a hypermarket brand Signature, the youth jeans label from Levi Strauss is keen on focusing on the hypermarket segment and is holding talks with Bharti-Wal-Mart, Reliance and Birla Retail to retail it’s products at their hypermarkets. The Signature brand features affordable clothes ranging from Rs. 600-900 and currently retails at 14 Big Bazaar stores. According to ATP Ramani, Business Head for Levi Strauss Signature, the company is very optimistic on business in hypermarkets, where they plan to operate at the upper end. Source: The Hindu Business Line
Arvind Mills to focus on retail Arvind Mills will be shifting its focus onto domestic retail rather than denim exports after it received a 75% decline in profit in the last quarter due to reducing margins in the global denimwear market. Arvind is one of the largest denim manufacturers in the world. Sanjay Lalbhai, the managing director of Arvind said that he expects the Arvind brands to contribute to 50% of the company’s entire business by 2010, while at present it stands at 35%. Arvind’s brands include Arrow, Lee, Wrangler, Kipling, Nautica and Jansport from the international arena and Excalibur, Flying Machine, Ruf & Tuf and Newport from its domestic kitty of brands. The company will be launching its Flying Machine brand in the US and Europe after six months. Source: Business Standard Reliance Retail interested in tying up with Bata Reliance Retail and Bata are reportedly in talks for a tie up. Reliance Retail’s footwear segment is being taken care of by G Sankar, who is targeting a turnover of Rs. 30 billion for the segment. G Sankar was earlier the MD of Lifestyle India. If this tie up were to go through, then all Bata showrooms in the country would retail footwear brands by Reliance and Bata’s products would be sold at Reliance stores in return. Bata has more than 1,000 stores, which would give Reliance a huge base to start from. Source: The Economic Times Hidesign plans to consolidate international operations Pondicherry based leather manufacturer and retailer; Hidesign will be consolidating its presence in the international market by opening additional stores in Russia, Hong Kong, China and South Africa. According to Kumal Sachdev, Hidesign’s CEO, “We are present in over 20 countries outside India and they account for 65 per cent of our revenue. These markets are highly profitable for us because we are able to sell our products at more than twice the price when compared to India.” Hidesign will form joint ventures to enter three more countries and will increase its stores in India from 27 to 70. Source: Business Standard Future Group focusing on Brand Factory The Future Group is betting big with its factory priced outlet called Brand Factory, and hopes to convert about a fourth of its customers there to its higher format brand such as Central Mall. Brand Factory was launch late last year and now has four outlets, which get about 100,000 customers, of which 60% are repeat customers. These outlets work as ‘recruiting grounds’ for higher brands of the company as customers happy with the company are likely to switch to higher priced brands. Brand Factory sells items at 20-50% less than regular retail prices and has 135 brands available in its stores. Source: The Hindu Business Line |
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