Single brand retail norms could be tweaked by DIPP: Sources moneycontrol.com The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) is likely to tweak foreign direct investment norms in single-brand retail, according to a news report. The government last year allowed up to 100% FDI in single-brand retail, paving the way for companies like Marks & Spencers and Ikea to directly run stores in India. But that permission came with the rider that companies will have to have 30% domestic sourcing if FDI was above 51%. Foreign companies have expressed concerns on domestic sourcing and there are fears they won't come to India due to the sourcing clause. DIPP cannot unilateraly change the domestic sourcing clause, which was proposed by Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises. DIPP is likely to talk to the MSME Ministry in relation to the issue.

Ex-Reebok MD to move HC after district court rejects bail Moneycontrol.com Two days after the Gurgaon court rejected the anticipatory bail plea of Subhinder Singh Prem, Reebok India's former Managing Director, it has been reported that the accused is now preparing to move the Chandigarh High Court against the district court's order. Sources said that the accused would move the Chandigarh HC by the end of the week. Reebok's parent company Adidas had accused Prem and Vishnu Bhagat (former ReebokIndia COO) of a Rs 870 crore fraud. Adidas had alleged that both Prem and Bhagat stole and diverted the company's products and kept them in four secret warehouses though Adidas has nine warehouses of its own. A police official said Prem is likely to be arrested soon. The state head quarters of the Gurgaon Police is believed to have issued a lookout circular for him.

Pantaloon Retail to be unaffected by business demerger: Fitch Economic Times Fitch Ratings says that the proposed demerger of the Pantaloon format business (Pantaloon Retail and Pantaloon Factory outlets) is not expected to impact the credit profile of Pantaloon Retail India Limited (PRIL, 'Fitch A-(ind)'/Stable) and Future Value Retail Limited (FVRL, 'Fitch A-(ind)/Stable). Aditya Birla Nuvo Limited (ABNL) has proposed to acquire a controlling interest in the new entity post demerger. Fitch expects that post demerger lower inventory requirements and a shift towards lower discretionary retail format accruing to PRIL will be counterbalanced by a decline in its operating profitability, resulting in no immediate credit impact. Fitch expects PRIL's (excluding the Pantaloon format business) overall fixed charge ratio (operating EBITDAR/net interest expense + rents) to remain in the range of 1.1x to 1.3x, a level consistent with the present ratings.

Trent Q4 net profit up at Rs 19.52 crore Economic Times Tata Group's retail firm Trent Ltd posted over two-fold increase in net profit for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2012, at Rs 19.52 crore. During the three months ended March 31, 2011, the company's net profit was Rs 9.01 crore, it said in a filing to the BSE. Trent's net sales for the quarter under review increased by 21 percent to Rs 183.02 crore from Rs 151.28 crore in the year-ago period. The firm's net profit for 2011-12 fiscal grew 9.83 percent to Rs 47.26 crore, against Rs 43.03 crore in 2010-11. Net sales also grew 21.25 percent to Rs 770.14 crore from Rs 635.12 crore in the previous year.

Timbor Home gets SIDBI funds to set up Intelligent Kitchen stores Hindu Business Line Integrated furniture maker Timbor Home Ltd has got a Rs 6 crore funding from the Small Industries Development Bank ofIndia (SIDBI) to set up 30 high-end Intelligent Kitchens of India (IKI) stores nationally in 2012-13. While the company's existing 100 plus Timbor Cucine modular kitchen stores are targeted at the price conscious spending class, the IKI stores will be positioned to attract the premium upper-end of the young Indian consumers, the BSE-listed company said in a statement on Monday. The modular kitchen market in India has been growing at 50 percent a year and is expected to maintain this growth rate for some more years.

Groupon India tries to make the best of Snapdeals slot Business Standard Crazeal, the India unit of Nasdaq-listed American daily deal site Groupon, is like the last man standing in the online format its parent popularised in the US, its chief executive Ankur Warikoo said. He was referring to the industry leader in daily deals, Snapdeal, changing its business model recently to turn itself into an e-commerce company, allowing Crazeal to occupy the top slot. Crazeal (for crazy deals) cannot use the Groupon name in Indiadue to domain name litigation, but is hopeful of doing so sometime in the future. Snapdeal chief executive Kunal Bahl had recently said that Snapdeal was an e-commerce company, not a deal site. The company made the transition a few months earlier to expand its horizon and focus on a range of products and categories. Without naming the competition, Warikoo said three deal sites had gone under in the past three months. According to industry information, Taggle.com, Dealivore and Vamoose are among Indian deal sites that decided to wind up businesses in their current avatars. However, a few pure deal sites are still going strong in the Indian market, Deals & You and Mydala being the notable ones.

News - Food, QSR

Chocolate Bliss on expansion mode fnbnews.com Chocolate Bliss Pvt Ltd, India's first gourmet chocolate brand, is now aggressively expediting its additional outlet roll-out plans in Bengaluru before it forays into Mumbai. The expansions have been driven by the demand for gourmet chocolates despite the rising inflationary trend in the country. But the falling rupee which now affects the highly import-driven gourmet chocolate company and the rising fuel costs will force it to hike prices of its products at least by 8-10 percent. Vimal Sharma, Director, Chocolate Bliss, said that the four-year old company has been registering double-digit growth since its inception in 2008. It expects to see a dent in the overall growth and revenues this fiscal.

Trends

Large format stores shrink to swell gains mydigitalfc.com Hypermarkets or large format stores will not be as large as they are now. With real estate costs eating into operational expenses, retailers are keen on right-sizing. These retailers are shrinking the size of their large format stores to improve revenue-per-sq ft and profitability. Shoppers Stop is tweaking the size of its hypermarkets to make them profitable. The existing HyperCity stores haveretail space of 80,000 to 100,000 sq ft. Shoppers Stop has decided to downsize the new stores to 50,000-70,000 sq ft. "This will save on the hypermarket rentals. This is one among the few measures taken by us to make HyperCity Ebitda positive by March 2013 and Pat positive by January 2014," said Govind Shrikhande, Managing Director of Shoppers Stop.

Birla bullish on fashion retail, takes on Tatas, Reliance FashionUnited India After acquiring a controlling stake in the fashion retailbusiness of Pantaloons, the Aditya Birla Group is on the verge of becoming a giant fashion business house. According to Harminder Sahni, Director, Wazir Advisors, "AV Birla is the right buyer. They got into fashion business with the acquisition of Madura Garments and have grown the business almost 10 times since then. They have the management bandwidth, capital as well as vision and patience to create a multi-billion dollar fashion house like a GAP, ZARA or Liz Claiborne in the next 10 years. My guess is that they will be an Rs 20,000 crores fashion business in 2020-2025. On the other hand, Biyani has created a very good business in Pantaloon that now AV Birla can take to next the orbit of growth." The deal and current repositioning of its brands Van Heusen and Allen Solly in the Madura Garments fold also signals Birla's renewed push in retail and diversified group plans to build a $2 billion business (over Rs 10,000 crores). Once done this will give enough competition to other big players in the space like the Tatas and Reliance Industries.

Stillbirth of organised retail? Financial Express Does the recent sale of the Pantaloon branded business of Pantaloon Retail confirm that India's organised retail story will remain just a tantalising trailer of a promising movie that is likely to be shelved before its completion? The financial results of most other large, modern format retailers are not much to write about. For every Titan, Fabindia and Metro Shoes, there are dozens who are struggling to manage growth with profitability even asIndia's growth story (badly dented though it may be looking today) has been steady.

India's 20-year economic boom gives way to doubt in Delhi's malls The Guardian With its international brands, upmarket cafes, multiplex and fashion outlets, the DLF Select CityWalk mall in south Delhi is a monument to booming India. Opened five years ago, it is still a favourite among the new middle class in the emerging economic giant's teeming capital. But for Amarinder Singh Chopra, a hotelier shopping for clothes for his newborn baby in Mothercare, the shopping experience is not entirely carefree... "I won't compromise on quality for my kids so I am coming here, but I'm being a bit careful," said the 38-year-old, who runs a luxury safari-style hotel 250 miles north of Delhi. Many others share Chopra's sentiments. For weeks there has been a steady stream of bad news. The headline figures for economic growth in India have been revised downwards; prices continue to rise; government spending continues to grow faster than tax revenues, and the rupee has slumped. The slowdown comes after nearly 20 years of almost unbroken rapid growth, and fears are growing of an end to, or at least a pause in, the long-running boom.

Gold demand tepid as prices climb IBNLive.com Gold prices in India, one of the worlds leading consumers, climbed on Monday in line with firm global markets but the rise depressed physical demand just ahead of a lean season. "We are heading towards a seasonally weak demand period," said Babu Alapatt, Managing Director, Alapatt Gold Pvt Ltd, a retailer in Kerala. "The wedding season is coming to an end and the monsoon is approaching. Demand usually drops between June and mid-August when there are no major festivals and marriages... Volatility in prices is also deterring people from purchases," Alapatt said.

Insight

Quick Service Restaurants In India: A Study d'Essence India is witnessing rapid urbanization of small towns and growth of mid-sized cities. This along with rising population in key metros and higher disposable incomes is fuelling growth in every industry. 35% of India's population will be in urban centres by 2020 totaling to 53 crores compared to the current urban population of 32 crores. Consumer markets are being driven by the country's youth population. Be it college goers or the young working class, exposure to the international environment and culture, has created a demand for world-class products at affordable prices. This has led to the rise of Quick Service Restaurants (QSRs) in India, the fastest growing segment in the eating out market. By 2012, there will be at least 2000 more QSR outlets across India.

Retail Watch_Pakiza_May12 (Premium) - View Free Sample RETAILERS WHO START FROM SCRATCH HAVE MUCH TO IMPART TO THE INDUSTRY IN TERMS OF LEARNINGS. IMAGES BOF SPEAKS TO MEHBOOB HUSSAIN GORI, CEO, PAKIZA RETAIL, ABOUT HIS UNIQUE STRATEGIES. Pakiza Retail Pvt. Ltd., a part of Pakiza Group, was established in the year 1975 and interestingly the brand was named after the movie Pakeezah, released in 1972, which means pure. Before 1975 the founder brothers - Maqsood Hussain Gori and Manjoor Hussain Gori used to have a bicycle repair shop in the middle of an apparel trade market. Drawn towards the apparel retail business, the Gori brothers decided to start their very own apparel business. They borrowed Rs.3,000 from a friend and started selling clothes on a trolley. The business kicked off and they bought an otla of the size 3x2 ft. and thereafter there was no looking back for the Gori brothers. Currently, Pakiza Textile Pvt. Ltd. has more than 1, 50,000 sq. ft. of retail space including seven stores across Indore and Madhya Pradesh. "In Indore, we currently cater to the customers with value added products and service through our seven businessretail units.

Regional MBOs the Key to Success- Shahnawaz Sheikh (Premium) - View Free Sample WITH MARKET SATURATION IN METROS, BRANDS ARE AIMING TO VENTURE VIRGIN MARKETS AND MBOS OFFER A BETTER PROPOSITION. SHAHNAWAZ SHEIKH, CMD, SHORTY CAPONE, PROVIDES AN INSIGHT ON HOW TO CAPTURE THESE REGIONS. Fashion in India is evolving rapidly and awareness among the people is at its peak. Although at a nascent stage, the Indian fashion sense is fast catching up with the rest of the world, there is an increasing recognition of brands along with growth in the number of players throughout the peninsula. With FDI coming into the picture, India will experience a whole lot of influx of many more international brands looking for a bite off the Indian market. Awareness, however, has been restricted because in our country there are regions that are simply deprived of the latest fashion. Even now, in some parts of India, people travel huge distances just to get their favourite brands in contrast to most countries abroad, where brands have their presence even in interior markets. China, for example, has the availability of a variety of brands even in remote markets.

Online Retailing- The Channel Forward (Premium) - View Free Sample WITH E-TAILING GROWING AT A FAST PACE IN INDIA, IT HAS BECOME IMPERATIVE FOR BRICK-AND-MORTAR RETAILERS TO INTEGRATE THIS CHANNEL. PRAGYA SINGH, PRINCIPAL CONSULTANT, RETAILAND CONSUMER PRODUCTS, TECHNOPAK,TALKS ABOUT THIS EVOLVING MEDIUM. Retail e-commerce is perhaps the most written about retail topic in recent days. But this has not been an overnight phenomenon. During the mid-nineties VSNL introduced internet to India and it was during the noughties when internet penetration increased steadily and technological advancements enabled better online interfaces with safer transactions; and e-commerce inched into common man's life through travel retail, financial services and e-tailing; and the decade of 2010 is taking this phenomenon to the next level where it no longer can be ignored. The market size of e-commerce in India is estimated to be $14 billion in 2012 and is projected to reach $74 billion by 2017. E-tailing is essentially the selling of retail products and services through internet.

Manu Indrayan on Building a Kidswear Brand (Premium) - View Free Sample MANU INDRAYAN, MD, 612 IVY LEAGUE, TALKS TO IMAGES BOF ABOUT BUILDING A STRONG KIDSWEAR BRAND AND MARKET OPPURTUNITIES. Chandigarh-based textile company, INDIAN Group was started by first generation entrepreneurs, Manu Indrayan and Mohita Indrayan. The group has two companies under its umbrella - Indian Yarn Ltd, which manufactures synthetic and acrylic yarns and Indian Clothing League Pvt. Ltd. which launched kidswear brand - 612 Ivy League in 2009. They conducted a thorough market research before foraying into the kidswear segment. Manu Indrayan, Managing Director, 612 Ivy League, said, "Branded kidswear forms less than 10 per cent of the total kidswear market but it is growing at a rate of more than 20 per cent per annum. There are only a handful of brands in this segment and we realised that there is a lack of stylish contemporary garments at affordable prices." Indrayan believes that there is a huge opportunity in the garment sector due to its size and growing consumer base as he further adds, "Of the totalretail industry size of $435 billion, less than 10 per cent is organised retail and it is growing rapidly".