| From the Editor's Desk |  | |
Malls: The good, the bad and the ugly
As the Retail industry learns from its mistakes of the past 3 years, one hopes the Retail property market does so too. The difference between good and bad malls is more stark now than ever before. A good mall is well-located, has good infrastructure and is well-maintained. But these are just the hygiene factors (absolute necessities). What really differentiates a good mall from a bad mall is the attention to the tenant mix and the ability to attract the appropriate customers. While food courts and multiplexes might be able to generate footfalls, it is important to consider if those are the right kind of footfalls, namely, are those customers going to shop at the stores in the mall as well? On one of my recent visits to a mall in Mumbai, I noticed that around 40% of the stores were selling men's apparel. The tenant mix should ideally reflect the customer's shopping basket when they visit a mall. Certainly 40% of the shopper's basket is not filled with men's clothes. As the retail industry grows and interesting new retailers evolve, mall developers should look to add them to their mix, always keeping the target customer in mind.
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| At a Glance | |  |
Apparel, Accessories, Specialty, ..Food, QSR, ..Trends and Insight
| News: Apparel, Specialty, CDIT ... | | |
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President Barack Obama said India should lift restrictions on foreign direct investment in multi-brand retail, saying that old concerns that small shopkeepers would be impacted ignore today's reality. While addressing the US India Business Council summit in Mumbai, President Obama said, "Here in India, many see the arrival of American companies and products as threats to small shopkeepers and to India's ancient and proud culture. But these old stereotypes, these old concerns ignores today's reality." He also said, "Going forward, commitment must be matched by steady reduction to barriers in trade and foreign investment from agriculture to infrastructure and from retail to telecommunications." |
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Bharti Walmart, the joint venture between Bharti Enterprises and Walmart Stores Inc for wholesale, business-to-business and cash-and-carry operations in India, opened its first Best Price Modern Wholesale cash-and-carry store in Kota, Rajasthan. Best Price Modern Wholesale store is a one-stop business-to-business store that meets the day-to-day needs of restaurant owners, hoteliers, caterers, fruit and vegetable resellers, kiranas, retail store owners, offices and institutions. Spread over 53,000 square feet, the Best Price Modern Wholesale store is located at Indraprastha Industrial Area, Jhalawar Road, Kota. |
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Minaean International Corporation, a Vancouver-based company has been awarded a multi-million dollar contract for the construction of modular retail shops in India. Minaean announced that its wholly owned Indian subsidiary, Minaean Habitat (India) Pvt. Ltd. (MHI), has received a purchase order from state-owned Bharat for the supply and installation of 45 modular retail shops for gas stations. "We have been a pioneer in modular buildings, particularly in the retail building sector," said Mervyn Pinto, President and CEO of Minaean International Corporation. |
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 | New Marks & Spencer boss, Marc Bolland is set to unveil his blueprint for the retailer next week - with plans to devote much more shop space to selling homewares and ambitious plans to expand overseas, especially in Europe and India. The long-awaited strategy review will also focus on online opportunities in the UK and abroad. Bolland is expected to unveil plans for a substantial number of new stores in India, where it operates 16 shops in a joint venture with Reliance Industries. |
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Electrical equipment maker, Havells India is planning to open 12 Havells Galaxy, its retail outlet, in Andhra Pradesh by the end of this financial year, adding to its current four. "Havells Galaxy is targeted at end-users, architects and consultants, and showcases products from its eleven verticals. Andhra Pradesh is a big market for us and we have 30-35 per cent market share," said G Neeilkanth Rao, Deputy GM, Havells India. |
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 | Imation Corporation (traded on the NYSE as IMN), a leading global developer and marketer of branded digital storage products, plans to expand its operations. The company is focusing on India and expanding the channel partner base through Redington and Neoteric Informatics. In an exclusive interview, Mr. Kiran Nair, Country Head, Imation India, said the company was keen to penetrate in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities apart from 'A' cities for its products. |
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The MobileStore Ltd (TMS), the mobile retailing venture of the Essar Group, is taking an inorganic route to expand footprint in the country. The company is in advanced stages of discussion with two mobile retailing firms for an acquisition. Srikant Gokhale, Chief Executive Officer, TMS, said, "We are in discussion with two players which have 100 and 300 stores respectively with pan-India presence. We will acquire a big mobile retail chain within this calendar year." He did not name the companies that he was in talks with. |
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| News: Food & Grocery, QSR ... | | |
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After expanding aggressively over the past few years to become Malaysia's leading chain of Western quick-service restaurant, KFC Holdings (M) Bhd (KFCH) seems to have found a new turf to emulate its success. This time it is an even more promising market - India. The company last month opened its third restaurant in the Indian city of Mumbai - known for its Bollywood and financial services industry, and being home to the Bombay Stock Exchange and the headquarters of many foreign banks such as Citibank, HSBC and Barclays. This new restaurant follows the success of its first restaurant in India's educational-cum-cultural city Pune, which was opened in April, and its second, in Mumbai, in June. |
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Due to financial constraints, Milkfed Punjab has been unable to take legal action against a company that has been selling milk products in the US and Canadian markets, using the cooperative's brand name Verka and its logo. Kulwinder Dhillon, a non-resident Indian in Canada, has got a patent on the Verka brand from the US and has been selling milk products like desi ghee (clarified butter), paneer (cottage cheese), dahi (yogurt) and fresh milk in American and Canadian stores. This has marred Milkfed's export prospects. |
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In an apparent bid to challenge the monopoly of 'Dabbawalas', Kannelite, a leading private sector hospitality management company, will provide quality food to one lakh working people in India's commercial capital Mumbai and neighbouring IT hub Pune everyday, the company directors said today. "Talks are already in advance stages with some of the big companies including General Motors, Larsen and Toubro and Infosys. We will start serving around 15,000 meals per day, by the end of this fiscal, and reach one lakh mark in next three years,'' they added. |
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| Retail Trends | | |
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Consumer electronics companies are looking at sales growth of as much as 40-50% this festive season as consumers reach for high-end electronics and upgrade to feature-rich products. Large-screen LCD, full HD and LED television sets, 5-star rated split air-conditioners, fully-automatic and front-loading washing machines, smart phones and SLR cameras are all flying off the shelves such as never before. |
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Retailers, carmakers, jewellers and other consumer goods and services companies have reported the highest Diwali season sales, as consumers went on a buying spree across the country, except in Punjab, where floods dampened demand. "Diwali sales were the best ever," said Rakesh Biyani, CEO-retail at Future Group, India's largest retailer, which recorded more than 20% rise in footfalls and a more than 25% jump in average bill size. According to Sanjay Gupta, Marketing Head of Spencer's Retail, which reported a 20% jump in average bill size, the fear mindset of consumers has completely vanished. |
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A doubling of cotton prices since February 1 may mean more expensive clothes, sheets and towels, as textile mills including Arvind Ltd and retailers such as Next Plc pass along higher costs to their customers. Arvind, the world's largest denim maker and a supplier to jeans maker Levi Strauss and Gap, has raised prices by as much as 15%. |
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Malls are likely to see poorer occupancy over the next year, as the number of malls rises but their management remains unprofessional, property consultants say. Nearly 20% of total mall space under operation in India was vacant at the end of the September quarter. This will rise to 26% by the end of calendar year 2011, said a recent report by the real estate consultancy firm, Jones Lang LaSalle. |
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 | At the end of his keynote address on Saturday, the tsars of corporate India rose to give US president Barack Obama a standing ovation. But that warm gesture did not reflect in their reactions. India's top business honchos felt that there was a lot more for American audiences watching than there was for India. |
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| Retail Insight | | |
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| Retail Re-imagined |
| Hub Magazine |
That shoppers no longer need to go into physical retail stores is incontestable. The strong migration of sales away from physical stores and into the online arena is surely one of, if not the defining feature, of the new landscape of retail in these early years of the 21st century. |
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