Labour dept summons Arvind management, striking workers Business Standard With the 200-odd workers not relenting in their strike at Arvind Limited's Naroda plant in Ahmedabad, the local labour department has summoned both the company's management and workers. Demanding a 40 percent wage hike, over 200 workers have abstained from work since Monday. "We have written letter to both the Arvind management and the striking workers, summoning them on Thursday at our office. Once we hear each other's cases we will be able to provide necessary directions," said Shruti Modi, Assistant Labour Commissioner, Labour Department, Government of Gujarat.

If I can build businesses, I can reduce debt too: Kishore Biyani Business Today Just over three weeks earlier, Biyani shook hands in Kolkata with a younger, richer and equally ambitious Kumar Mangalam Birla, sealing the sale of what will be a controlling stake in his flagship Pantaloons retail stores business to Aditya Birla Nuvo Ltd. Most of us see a shimmering heat mirage in the distance; Biyani sees thousands of shoppers trooping into yet another Big Bazaar and hears the clanging of the cash registers. Hasn't he just sold the crown jewels in theretail empire he built from scratch? "I still believe in that dream," Biyani says. Is he sad he had to do it? "People feel that if someone is selling there has to be some act of desperation... I don't think so. I think alliances, mergers, partnerships are a way forward and that should not be seen as (an) exit."

Indian apparel retailers post hike in like-to-like sales Fibre2fashion.com Apparel retail firms in India have witnessed a growth in their sales from like-to-like (LTL) stores, which have helped them in registering healthier bottom lines last fiscal. Arvind, Shoppers Stop, Raymond and K-Lounge are among the clothing retailers that have posted good LTL sales during fiscal 2011-12. Arvind's exclusive stores, which sell brands like Arrow, Gant, Flying Machine & USPA, have posted 18 percent LTL growth in 2011-12. The company's overall LTL sales posted 10 percent growth during the fiscal year that ended on March 31, 2012.

Pantaloon Retail raises Rs 200 cr from Bennett, Coleman & Co mydigitalfc.com Pantaloon Retail (India) has raised Rs 200 crore from Bennett, Coleman & Co Ltd (BCCL) through issue of shares on preferential basis. In a filing to the BSE, Pantaloon Retail said it has "made allotment of 81,63,265 equity shares of Rs 2 each at a premium of Rs 243 per share to Bennett, Coleman & Co Ltd, a Private Investor...On a preferential basis." The company said that after the transaction, the paid-up capital of the company has increased from Rs 44.68 crore to Rs 46.32 crore, comprising 21.57 crore equity shares of Rs 2 each and 1.52 crore Class B (Series 1) shares of Rs 2 each.

Naturals to open 60 new outlets Franchiseindia.com Naturals, a chain of unisex salons and spas, is all set to open 60 new outlets pan India, by the end of the year, through the franchise route. Currently, the brand marks its presence with 140 outlets across India. To own the franchise of Naturals spa, a franchisee would require a minimum area of 1,200 sq. ft along with an investment of Rs 30-40 lakh.

India is the single most important focus for US luxury brand Zippo New York Daily News India is the "single most important focus right now", says US luxury goods maker Zippo, which is readying to open its first concept store in Mumbai that will feature a range of lifestyle products. Shailesh Sharma, India distributor for the Pennsylvania-headquartered company said, "In the last three years, India has become a significant market with great potential and we expect it to be one of the key players in the international market. The growth in India is predicted to be more than double in the next five years." Zippo has been present in the country since 2008.

LuxeYard boosts global presence with expansion to India MarketWatch LuxeYard Inc., the fast-growing boutique luxury flash sale site, on Wednesday announced plans to expand to India under an exclusive licensing deal with veteran technology and retail entrepreneur Sashi Chimala. Under the terms of the agreement, Mr. Chimala will establish LuxeYard India - http://india.luxeyard.com- with a dedicated team to build product acquisition, marketing and merchandising operations to manage the site. Working closely with the U.S. team, LuxeYardIndia will leverage the company's existing e-commerce platform and operations infrastructure, as well as its extensive knowledge of selling fashion, home furnishings and decor via the flash sale model.

News - Food, QSR

Sequoia to get 18% return on Cafe Coffee Day exit Business Standard Sequoia Capital India Pvt Ltd, one of the leading private equity funds in India with as much as $1.4 billion (around Rs 7,700 crore) under management, is planning a healthy exit from one of its earlier investments - Amalgamated Bean Coffee Trading Co Ltd, an arm of the Coffee Day Group that runs the flagship coffee retailing chain, Cafe Coffee Day. According to investment bankers close to Sequoia and the Coffee Day Group, the PE fund may sell most of its stake with returns in the range of 16-18 per cent on its investment made in two tranches of $10 million each in 2006 and 2007. "The discussions are at advanced stages and a closure is expected shortly. Coffee Day Group is already raising resources to buy back the stake held by Sequoia," an investment banker close to Coffee Day Group said on condition of anonymity.

Hot food retail sector gets government push Hindustan Times Riding high on the huge opportunity in food retail, the government is looking to set high benchmarks by releasing three new standards to bring such stores on par with their global counterparts. The sector, currently estimated at Rs. 3.1 lakh crore, is growing 30% annually and is set to double in the next 15 years to Rs. 6.6 lakh crore. Considering such a big growth and its direct impact on the consumer, the national standards body, Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), has come up with three standards for the food retail sector in terms of management, hygiene practices and processing of food.

Britannia plans to go West, targets Indian diaspora afaqs Britannia Industries, which has a near-dominant control in the Indian biscuits market, is embarking on a global expansion to shore up its growth story. The company, which logged 19 percent growth in top line at Rs 5,400 crore (Rs 54 billion), derives around Rs 250 crore (Rs 2.5 billion) from global operations and is looking at all vectors to expand its presence overseas."Several of our bakery and dairy brands are available in approximately 30 countries, and we want to open up new geographies with new offerings," Managing Director Vinita Bali said. Britannia has entered mature North American and UK markets. "We are targeting the Indian diaspora in the United States, Canada and the UK," Bali said..

Trends

Modern retail: Small town India checkmates metros Daily News & Analysis Tier II towns are in the midst of a retail revolution, where supermarkets and hypermarkets are booming, offering a wide array of choices and cool comfort to shop. For retailers it means lower rentals and other costs. Tier II towners who breeze into retail outlets twice or thrice a week are a chief reason behind the surge in growth in modern trade in non-metros. Data by Nielsen show that tier II markets like Surat, Indore, Jaipur, and Vizag among others are witnessing rapid growth in modern trade. Not only are these places registering strong double-digit numbers, but are often clocking more growth than established markets like Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata.

Retailers like Wal-Mart, Tesco & others ship food waste to power plants for power generation Economic Times Fish heads and chicken fat are being turned into electricity by the UK's largest retailers including Wal-Mart Stores that ship food waste to power plants to reduce garbage-removal fees. Tesco, Britain's biggest supermarket chain, along with Marks & Spencer Group, John Lewis Partnership's Waitrose, William Morrison Supermarkets and J Sainsbury are testing how meat and fish, cooking oils and leftover sandwiches can lower energy bills and landfill costs when they're transported to plants for converting into power. Companies around the world have invested about $18.2 billion in waste-to-energy assets in the past five years, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

Retail Therapy: New ways for better consumer connect FashionUnited India A recent study, The World of Retail: How Employee Engagement Can Help the Registers Ring, released by Kenexa High Performance Institute, examined employee engagement trends in the retail sector since 2007 in the US, Brazil, China, Germany, India and the United Kingdom. The study reveals that employee engagement has a direct correlation with customer satisfaction and organizational performance. No wonder then that companies like Mahindra Group, Shoppers Stop, Pantaloon Retail and Reliance are either hiring specialists on board or grooming existing talent to establish a better connect with their customers. Many retailers have also tied up with grooming schools to train their employees, or are hunting for specialised graduates or domain experts for their shop floors. The best example of this trend is diamond jewellery chain, Orra, which has appointed designers on shop floors to help customers in making their purchase decisions.

Retailers to invest Rs 13668 crore by 2017 on IT solutions: Study Economic Times Modern retailers in India are estimated to invest Rs. 13,668 crore by 2017 to deploy technology solutions at stores for cost control, opportunity assessment and risk minimisation, says a study. According to a survey conducted by the Retailers Association of India (RAI) and market insight firm Nielsen, while a cumulative number is not available for the sector at present, on an average, a retailer spends around Rs 1.55 crore on IT solutions annually. "The retail sector is primed for growth and is looking at actively investing in information technology to support this growth," Nielsen India Director Subhash Chandra said.

How shopper marketing will change the way we buy and are sold to Economic Times Drivers of organised retail like Kishore Biyani of Big Bazaar and Noel Tata of Westside fame have been known to make discreet visits to their respective retail formats on weekends to observe consumer behaviour. However, organised efforts at picking up nuances in buying habits and quirks have been few and far between. Paco Underhill, christened the Sherlock Holmes for Retailers, in his book' Why We Buy,' explained why women are less likely to splurge if they are "brushed" by intruding merchandise. Underhill wrote his bestselling tome more than a decade ago, but it's still relevant - particularly in a still-fledgling organised retail sector in a consumer-driven economy likeIndia.

Insight

Marketing Of Nanobiogarments IJMRA The amalgamation of science and fashion has led to the emergence of "Nanobiogarments". The Indian market, affected by the overall growth rate of the global apparel industry which grew 68.8% in the period 2008-2009, created opportunities for various companies to create innovative products in clothing. Nanobiogarments are an example of such products. These garments are anti-allergic, anti-microbial, and moisture-retaining, and have been created using a combination of nanotechnology and medicinal biology.

Cover Story- Beyond the Metros- Small Cities Big Opportunity (Premium) - View Free Sample As the metros saturate and become more expensive to operate in, many Retailers are expanding to smaller towns and cities across India to tap a new breed of customers who are getting richer and increasingly willing to shell out money to shop at modern retail formats. The modern retailrevolution in India began in Delhi and Mumbai over one and a half decades ago and gradually spread to Hyderabad and Bangalore and other tier I cities of the country. These prominent locations offered clear advantages to retailchains: millions of potential consumers with solid purchasing power, high level of urbanisation, availability of quality retail real-estate, and good physical infrastructure. However, over the years, competition intensified and rentals and operational costs became very high, affecting the overall profitability of retailers. The result: many players have begun to seriously look at growth opportunities in smaller towns beyond the metros where the competition is less, rentals are still reasonable, salaries are comparatively low, and consumers have begun to prefer the sophisticated atmosphere of modernretail outlets over crowded bazaars.

Cash and carry- how retail chains can benefit (Premium) - View Free Sample There are solid reasons why the projected growth in modern retail in india may not happen over the next decade. But there is a brighter side to the story - the power of the cash-and-carry (C&C) format and how it is helping organise the Indian retail sector. Modern retailchains should learn to ride piggyback on the C&C investments being made into India by global players like metro and walmart. The Indian retail market already accounts for a very large part of the economy and will continue to grow its share over the coming years. The percentage of modern retail in this is still very small but is continuously expanding and will surely garner much larger share of the total retail market over the next few decades. However, the current figures for modern retail in India are nowhere close to what they were projected to be in the past. I believe the actual numbers in the next five to seven years, or say by 2020, will be really off from those currently being projected by various entities. I have a few reasons for this.

Analytics is a critical need for retailers to be future ready (Premium) - View Free Sample customers today have access to a wealth of information even before they begin their shopping. To offer them the right product mix at the right price and through the right channel, retailers should know what they value the most. Analytics can help them achieve this by delivering a smarter shopping experience and helping them build smarter operations, merchandising mix, and supply chain. Indira P Rani, Vice President (Distribution Sector) with IBM India/South Asia, talks to "images retail" about the importance of analytics to retailers .

Tips to sharpen your Shopper Research (Premium) - View Free Sample Moohlas are being spent behind decoding shoppers, Shopper research has sure risen to significance but as we pump in the monies, we also fight the many hazards that threaten to eat up the money. Right from wastage and spillover during research, to the risk of ending up with unyielding insights. Providing a solution to this plight we have some Shopper research experts hailing from leading research organizations. Read to know the tactics for effective shopper research.