Retail insight as on 30th March 2010

March 30, 2010News for the Retail industry










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News: Apparel, Specialty, CDIT ...



RBI limits FII investment in Pantaloon Retail

Press Trust of India

The Reserve Bank today said foreign institutional investors cannot purchase shares in Kishore Biyani-promoted Pantaloon Retail anymore as the company has hit the FII limit. "No further purchases of shares of Pantaloon Retail would be allowed in the stock exchanges in India on behalf of FIIs/NRIs/PIOs," RBI said in a release.





Kapsons to invest Rs 60 crore in Punjab

Business Standard

North India's retail chain, Kapsons plans to infuse Rs 60 crore to set up six lifestyle stores across Punjab and Chandigarh. Director of Kapsons, Darpan Kapoor, said the company also intended to have a big warehousing facility in Mohali. With the opening of two premium Kapsons' international lifestyle stores in Amritsar and Ludhiana, the total number of stores has gone up to 12 now.





Emporio, Palladium show signs of revival

mydigitalfc.com

India's finest luxury retail addresses, Emporio in Delhi and Palladium in Mumbai, have recorded good growth in the last six months, reflecting rising consumer confidence. Sudeep Chabbra, marketing head, Emporio, said, "There has been 20-25 per cent increase in the overall revenues of retailers at Emporio. Since October the mall has regained footfalls of 35 per cent."





Anjani Kasliwal: Executing her dream job at S Kumars

CNBC-TV18

After learning the luxury business at Escada in Germany, Anjani for the last three years has been looking after the luxury division at Brandhouse Retail, a listed subsidiary of SKNL. Managing luxury brands like Alfred Dunhill in India, Anjani realizes growing this market is not easy as it seems





Trifed starts branding of tribal handicraft

Financial Express

The Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India Ltd (Trifed) has started the process of branding some of the tribal handicraft that it buys from artisans and sells them at its 36 'Tribes India' outlets in the country and two overseas. The main objective of the cooperative is to provide marketing support to tribal products.





TFFS to set up 300 spas for Rs 75 cr

Business Standard

After four day spas and one hotel spa in Pune, The Four Fountains Spa (TFFS) is expanding to cities like Mumbai, Delhi and NCR, Bangalore and Chennai, amongst other tier-I and tier II cities with a plan of 300 spas by 2014 with an approximate investment of Rs 75 crore. About 10 per cent of these will be company owned and operated. The rest will be franchisee owned and company operated.





News: Food & Grocery, QSR ...



Novelty Proves a Hit for Taco Bell in India

Wall Street Journal

To attract the Indian customer, Taco Bell's menu starts at 18 rupees, or about 40 cents. It is hoping that price is the sweet spot: just below what is on the McDonald's menu and just above street-food prices in the cities.





Retail Trends



HUL sets sights on doubling business

Livemint

Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) will look beyond its current bruising battles for market share and focus on doubling the business, the chairman of its parent said. HUL managing director and CEO Nitin Paranjpe said that Unilever sent global experts from other markets to help HUL develop capabilities to deal with modern retail chains.





We've removed AC to become warm: Nielsen

Economic Times

Six weeks into his stint, Mr Mathur is busy bringing in new products from Nielsen's global offering to the country including Neurofocus that tracks the brainwaves of a consumer as she watches an advertisement or go shopping.





The dark side of retail-supplier relationship

Economic Times

Here is one of modern retail's best-kept secrets. The real game is not what you sell but how you keep the money moving. More than anything, cheap trade credit has bankrolled the country's retailing explosion.





'In India, Gold is a way of life...'

Commodity Online

Only a few organized players are in the fray to tap the growing consumption demand of gold and silver. This has made it imminent for large players in the market to adopt innovation in market development and product segments to capitalize on the potential retail market in India





Indian women getting 'empowered' with direct selling

Sify

India's $740-million direct selling industry, where products are sold directly to customers rather than through retail shops, is fast emerging as a viable career option for women, empowering them to earn some decent money from home.





Retail Insight



Customer Centric Loyalty Programs as Key to High Performance Retailing

Accenture

Despite the widespread prevalence of loyalty programs in the retail industry, the risk of customer churn remains high. Accenture research shows that 85 percent of the "loyal" customers are willing to shop elsewhere if properly enticed. In response, some retailers have adjusted their loyalty programs to align them better with what they believe matters most to their target customers.