Reliance Retail aiming for up to Rs 50K cr revenue in 3-4 years Financial Express Identifying its retail arm as one of the future growth drivers of the group, RIL Chairman and MD Mukesh Ambani on Thursday said that Reliance Retail was eyeing a turnover of up to Rs 50,000 crore in the next three to four years. Addressing shareholders at the annual general meeting of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), Ambani said that in the five years of operations Reliance Retail has achieved revenues of over Rs 7,600 crore. The company is targeting a growth of five to six times in existing revenues and achieving Rs 40,000-50,000 crore over the next three to four years, he said. Ambani further said, "Reliance Retail will be one of our important growth engines in the next few years and will have amongst the highest growth rates and earnings potential."

Apparel units in Chennai face Bangladesh threat The Hindu Apparel export units in Chennai that once made waves globally for their woven men's wear, including the famous Madras Checks, are struggling to survive in the face of intense competition from Bangladesh, besides rising costs of labour and power. As many as 33 units in and around Chennai have closed down over the last two years, said representatives of the Apparel and Handloom Exporters Association. The going is far from good for the remaining 100-odd units which have cut their production, many by as much as two-thirds, in the last few years.

Myntra set to fashion its own private labels Hindu Business Line Online retailer Myntra.com is set to introduce its own range of merchandise, primarily in apparel, around November this year. At present, Myntra retails over 300 brands including Levis, Lee, Wrangler, Adidas, Arrow and Puma. Mr Ashutosh Lawania, Co-Founder, Myntra, said the company will start its private labels with apparels, and depending on the response move into segments such as accessories. "We are yet to decide on the pricing and brand names for the apparel range. It might have a separate name or be eponymous to our website," he told reporters on Thursday. Myntra is also in the process of developing a virtual trial room.

RIM launches third BlackBerry store in Bangalore BerryReview Research In Motion has announced the opening of the first BlackBerry exclusive store in Bangalore. Located at Indiranagar 1st stage, the store will feature the entire BlackBerry product portfolio. It will provide customers the opportunity to discover the BlackBerry experience. RIM also launched an exclusive BlackBerry store at Basavangudi. Both stores will be open seven days a week. The company also plans to open similar stores in key metro cities across India in a phased manner.

Me n Moms opens third outlet in Hyderabad Hindu Business Line Baby and mother care products retailer, Me n Moms, on Thursday opened its third outlet in Hyderabad and the 12th in the country. Spread across 1,500 sq ft, the store has a range of kids wear and accessories, along with women's maternity products for pre-natal and post-natal care. The retailer has chalked out plans to increase the number of outlets to 50 in the next three years, half of which will be company-owned and the remaining through the franchisee route, he said. First generation entrepreneur Naresh Khatar also said that he has a filed a suit against Mom n Me retail, part of the Mahindra Group, for a similarity in the brand name. The case is pending in court.

Miraaya plans pan-India expansion FashionUnited India Miraaya Apparel & Trading, an Indian ethnic women's wear brand is looking to expand its presence across India. Currently, Miraaya operates 15 outlets across the country. The company is looking at increasing the number of stores to 75 in the coming years. Miraaya will first target the Tier II and III cities for its expansion. The brand based out of the US and India initially concentrated e-selling before launching its own stores in the country.

News - Food, QSR

UK's Coffee Republic scouts for partner to enter Indiamarket Economic Times London-based international cafe chain Coffee Republic is in talks with potential local partners to enter India. The company will sign up a local master franchisee within six months and plans to open 50-80 stores in five years, Coffee Republic Chief Executive Tariq Affara said. Coffee Republic has begun discussions with companies that operate food concepts and those that have expertise in the real estate market, Affara said. The firm plans to anchor its presence in metro cities before expanding to tier-II markets. The privately held company, which began operations in London in 1995, has around 100 outlets across countries such as South Africa, Cyprus, Kuwait, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Bulgaria and Romania.

Kamat to open Vindhyas restaurant in China Firstpost Hotelier Vithal Kamat will be selling authentic South Indian idlis in China soon. Kamat will be taking his peninsular Indian cuisine restaurant Vindhyas to China in the next six months. Currently there is one Vindhyas restaurant in the Kamat-owned Orchid hotel in Mumbai. Kamat said that the entrepreneurs they are partnering with in China want to set up a chain of Vindhyas restaurants in that country. However, there is only a concrete plan on the first one so far.

Trends

Online retailers go the EMI route to net shopaholics Hindu Business Line Online is doing everything that offline did to woo shopaholics. Tapping into the "buy now, pay later" psyche of customers, online retailers are making it convenient for consumers to indulge in high value shopping on their sites. With such a large untapped market staring at them, online retailers are quickly partnering with banks to facilitate customers. BuyThePrice.com already offers the option to Citibank card holders and is now in the process of tying up with HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank. Mr Sachin Singhal, Head, E-commerce at Naaptol.com, says the company plans to tie up with at least 12 banks to offer EMI. Indiaplaza.com has already partnered with Citibank, HDFC Bank and ICICI to facilitate the option.

FDI in retail is a great opportunity Livemint The Union government, after the recent petrol price increase, may be in a mood for reforms. Opening multi-brand for foreign direct investment (FDI) seems to be the next logical step. Thinking about international retailers, the US-based retailer WalMart often springs to mind. WalMart is symbolic of foreign retailers... It may be useful to take WalMart as a case in point and examine the implications of the possible "opening" of retail for WalMart and other foreign retailers. For India, there is much to gain and little to lose. An analysis:

Hasbro Clothing to invest Rs 15 cr in marketing exchange4media.com After the success of its men's fashion segment in South India with over 90 stores, Hasbro Clothing Company is set to launch a nationwide television campaign to promote its newly launched online shopping portal, Basicslife. Commenting on the marketing strategies for 2012, Hanif Sattar, Managing Director, Hasbro Clothing said, "We are looking at investing about Rs 15 crore this year in our marketing activities. We come from a store retail background but now the new communication plan and the reach of the new creative will put our e-commerce business on the map nationally." The brand has presence in over 600 multi-brand outlets across India and the world, apart from being available on the leading lifestyle and fashion portals such as Myntra and Jabong.

Insight

Indian Consumer Trends 2011-12: A Study Technopak Change is an integral part of every society and no consumer is spared from the effect of the phenomenon of changing demographics and income levels, which leads to their new and revamped lifestyle. In recent times, India has been facing a sea of alteration in every sphere. While the family structure is modifying and shrinking from joint to nuclear, income has heightened, leaving consumers with increased disposable income. Consequently, the wish list and aspirations of consumers is not inert but is ever changing. What they want to use and experience alters with progress in time since they always tend to seek novelty. Subsequent to this, there has been a drift in their consumption attitude and pattern as well as a difference in the way they buy, leading to a wide range of alterations in their standard of living. Thus, change in consumer trends is inevitable.

Growth Drivers of Modern Retail (Premium) - View Free Sample The overall Indian retail market is estimated to be around $428 bn, but modern retail accounts for only 8 percent of it. This, more than anything else, underlines the tremendous scope for growth in modern retailing in the country in the years to come. There are a host of factors that are propelling the expansion of modern retail in India, including the improving infrastructure, a move away from the socialistic pattern of economy, better educational opportunities, and rising consumerism. Over the last couple of decades, much has been written in the Indian media about modern retailing, but the term has never been defined. Of late, FMCG companies have begun to use the words "modern trade" to describe the industry. Here again, there is confusion. While a stand-alone supermarket chain in Mumbai gets treated as modern trade, supermarkets with monthly sales of Rs.200 crore in Jalgaon or Jalna do not. Numerous such examples are found throughout India. To the common man, this distinction may matter little, except that modern trade sells things a little cheaper and offers many discounts and schemes, but it falsifies national data about the true extent of modern retail in the country.

Grooming Future CEOs (Premium) - View Free Sample The most important part of building any industry is the creation of capability as well as capacity. retailers in Indianeed to introduce management development programmes to groom entry-level employees to rise through the ranks. Indian modern retail has remained in its infancy for a long period now. The industry has grown in volume and value sales, but the contribution of modern retail to the overallretail hovers in the 5 percent range. The hard truth is that modern retail has not surpassed our country's consumption growth in a big way. At the same time, traditional retailers are expanding and modernising themselves. Modern retail has attracted a large share of media space as well as mindspace in the consulting practices - after all, nobody can deny its benefits and positive contribution to the India growth story. Unfortunately, the politicians and the beaurocratic set-up of the country have not understood the impact modernretail can have on the Indian consumers and the economy. For strange reasons, modern retail in popular imagination has got associated with the FDI issue.

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.