Retail-Nama

VLCC Health Care will roll out 55 franchise centres in 2007 to reach out the potential customers in the suburbs of India, reports Business Standard. To monitor and support the franchisee, a service delivery cell will be recruited to maintain the quality of services. VLCC will provide equipment sources, staff training and complete guidelines of different process and different treatments.

Five new centres at Patiala, Yamunanagar, Raipur, Hissar and Mathura will be added to VLCC fold in the first week of January, said Yogesh Sethi, chief operating officer, VLCC.

The Rs 200-crore VLCC expects to earn about 25 per cent of its total revenue from the suburban market in the next two years.

Brand House Retails (BRH), the retailing division of S Kumars Nationwide, which currently offers Belmont brand in the mid-price segment and Reid & Taylor in the premium segment may look at introducing its own brands in the economy ready-to-wear segment and the western casual wear category reports Business Standard. BRH Chief Executive Officer Tarun Joshi said the company was actively looking at these categories to fill the void in the company’s current offerings.The company has signed a licensee agreement to retail Stephens Brothers to cater to the super premium segment and with Dunhill to cater to the luxury segment.

Brand House Retails (BRH), which handles both in-house brands as well as the global brands under licensing agreements is considering 552 exclusive brand outlets for 20 brands by 2011. The revenue from both licensed and in-house brands for the timeframe is estimated at Rs 900 crore. Of these, 125 stores will come up by March 2007 with a revenue target of Rs 25 crore.

Beginning with Excalibur, Arvind Brands is focusing on completely overhauling the image and positioning of all its home grown brands including Ruf n Tuf, Flying Machine and New Port reports Hindu Business Line from Bangalore.

Arvind Brands is relaunching Excalibur as a lifestyle brand with complete wardrobe solutions for young executives from being just a functional men’s formal shirts brand. Excalibur has expanded its portfolio to include knits, jackets, T-shirts, blazers and suits under the categories of `Business Hours’, `After Hours’, `Vogue’, `Royale’ and `Vitals.’ . Excalibur, presently a Rs. 40 crore brand is expecting to notch up Rs. 60 crore turnover this year, with Milind Soman agreeing to become its brand ambassador.

Plans are afoot to increase the tally of exclusive Excaliber outlets from 40 to 100 during fiscal 2007. London based design firm JHP has been roped in to design its new stores outlets with a view to provide a different retail experience to consumers. (more…)

Woolworths (The Fresh Food People), Australia’s largest food retail chain, which has recently signed an agreement with Tata owned Infiniti Retail Ltd., is eyeing India’s retail market when the government opens it up to foreign firms.The Australian firm will evaluate its options if the government liberalises investment rules for foreign retailers, former CEO Roger Corbett, who is now a Woolworths consultant, told Reuters in an interview.

“If they were to open up, yes certainly Woolworths Australia would be very interested in looking at opportunities in India, but those opportunities would be in partnership with Tata,” said Corbett.

He said India would attract some of the best global retailing firms if the sector were deregulated and Woolworths itself would look at opportunities beyond electronics and durables.

“Food retailing and general store merchandising are certainly aspects of our business that we would consider bringing to India,” he said.

Retail consultancy Technopak Advisors has estimated the size of India’s retail industry at about $300 billion and forecast it to grow to $427 billion in 2010. Presently, branded retail makes up only 3 percent of the market, compared to China’s 20 percent and Thailand’s 40 percent.

French footwear brand Homme Global is making a foray into the Indian market with its premium brands Momme and Maco through its licensee East Face Footwear Pvt Ltd, informed company’s director sales and marketing Arun Kumar Vajpayee.

East Face has made an initial investment of about Rs one crore and is eyeing a turnover of over Rs 10 cr each for Homme and Maco during the first year. East Face plans to sell 30,000 pairs for both Homme and Maco in the next one year, while it hopes to export nearly 25,000 pairs by the end of the fiscal reports Sify.

The footwear market in the country currently stands at more than Rs 4,000 cr and is slated to grow at about 12-15 per cent per annum. The premium segment, in which the Homme brand would be positioned, is expected to grow at about 20 per cent and the mid-segment slated for a 10-12 per cent growth annually, said Vajpayee.

“Homme is targeted at the upper-income level and is price in the range of Rs 3,000-5,000, while Maco is targeted at the mid-segment and is priced less than Rs 2,999,” he said.

The US$ 20 billion retail toy giant Disney is set to ink an agreement with Jaipurias, the leading Coke bottler in India who also own Pepsi in Nepal and are promoters of Rs. 1200 crore Costa Coffee Retail licensee Devyani International to initial open two stores in Delhi with plans to subsequently expand the chain with more stores in other metropolitan cities reports the Economic Times. The licensee agreement is likely to cover entire Disney line of business including products in various categories such as softlines comprising accessories, apparel, footwear and sleepwear and toys, including action figures, board games and playsets, and food, health & beauty products, consumer electronic products and stationery.

The Tata group’s consumer durables retail initiative, Croma, will tap into the company’s credit card database to rope in loyal customers and will offer cardholders the advantage of several loyalty programmes packed into one card. The card was ealier launched in association with SBI Cards- a State Bank of India subsidiary) At present, the card is being used by Tata employees, which will be made public this month reports Business Standard.

Pantaloon Retail India – a Future Group company – has launched one more retail format, Brand Factory, to offer fashion brands at factory prices. The Future Group intends to take this format to all metros and A class towns with 10 lakh plus population reports Business Standard.

According to sources, the new format will offer the best brands at discounted prices, without compromising on the shopping experience. “The brands will be presented in a fully air-conditioned, slick environment spanning over 60,000 to 1,00,00 sq ft,” a source said.

Pantaloon Retail in a 50:50 tie-up with Alpha Airports Group Plc is now entering airports with a view to look into the travel retail and food and beverage catering businesses at leading airports including Bangalore, Hyderabad and Delhi reports Business Standard.

Reliance is not content with its massive plans to become a retail major in the country. The company is working on strengthening its procurement and supply chain efficiencies to emerge as a key supplier and exporter as well reports the Economic Times.

The company, as a way of practising its procurement tie ups, had earlier supplied fruits and vegetables to Big Bazaar. Ready to roll out its first stores- five large-format stores (5,000-10,000 sq ft) in size in Hyderabad in the third week of October, it is keen to continue supplying to other retail players here.

The company will soon receive a major consignment of goods from China, which will include electronics, apparel, stationery and also FMCGs. Sources say these goods will not just be for the retail venture and could be supplied to other buyers as well. Procurement is a separate division from retail and there will be cost advantages as the company builds up farm linkages, said a source.

Reliance is setting up rural business hubs in Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttaranchal and West Bengal. These hubs, which will come up in the next six months or so, will not only be procurement centres for grains and milk, but also house schools, medical care centres, apart from having weather and soil specialists to help farmers produce better yield.

Reliance is also keen to buy capacities, including food processing and FMCG manufacturing ones. It is learnt to have acquired a few flour processing capacities in Punjab and is scouting for others in India and abroad.

The Reliance Group Chairman, Mukesh Ambani, a big believer in the power of number nine. has chosen to kick-off his next big bet: the launch of Reliance Retail on October 18, reports the Economic Times. Ambani and the Andhra Pradesh chief minister YSR Reddy are expected to inaugurate the group’s first retail format — a basic fresh food & vegetable chain — in Hyderabad. Nearly 28 outlets in AP are expected to go live on the same day.

After AP, Punjab is expected to be the next stop for the US$ 5.5 Bn.(Rs 250 Bn.) retail juggernaut. As is widely known, Reliance Retail has plans to launch two different formats, ‘Feel Fresh’ and ‘Feel Fresh Plus’. ‘Feel Fresh’ stores will stock fresh fruits, vegetables and staples and will be spread over 3,000-5,000 square feet.

On the other hand, ‘Feel Fresh Plus’ stores will be spread over 10,000-15,000 sq ft, and stock fruit and vegetables as well as apparel, consumer electronics, FMCG items and even medicines. Both these formats will be entirely company-owned and managed.

After the launch in AP and Punjab, Reliance Retail will then spread out to other cities such as Mumbai and Delhi, where Reliance has identified up to 80 locations each. Reliance is also in the process of acquiring six acres of land in Hyderabad from Bhagyanagar, a real-estate developer in AP, for Rs 75-100 crore. RRL is planning a mall in the acquired land which will be the centre point of RRL’s operations in Hyderabad.

RIL spokesperson declined to comment on the development. The company has already signed agreements with the West Bengal and Punjab governments to tie up for procurements and roll out retail outlets. Sources said that after entering into an alliance with Sahakari Bhandar in Mumbai, the company had been looking at strategic alliances with other co-operatives too. However, the other initiatives are yet to fructify.