IIFL Group acquires majority stake in Infigo

IIFL Asset Management Ltd (IIFL AMC) has acquired a majority stake in Infigo Lifesciences through IIFL India Private Equity Fund through an unspecified amount.

Infigo, which started with six centres — four eye care hospitals and two 3D eye clinics in Mumbai, is planning to start a chain of speciality eye care centres in India.

The company plans to open a total of 15 centres within one year, with ten centres in Mumbai and the remaining five spread across Maharashtra. IIFL India PE Fund will look to invest up to ₹70 crore in multiple tranches to pre-defined business milestones for setting up over 20 centres, the company said.

 “India is witnessing an interesting trend with people preferring to visit branded specialty centers for their healthcare needs. In a country where most eye care practices are individually-run and often lack protocols or standards, there is an opportunity to create a pan-India franchise of speciality eye care centres. The current gap in demand and supply and increasing consumer preference for branded chains presents a unique opportunity,” said Prashasta Seth, Senior Managing Partner, IIFL AMC. 

“There is a huge void for quality eye care service at an affordable cost and IIFL’s support and guidance will help us fill this void and build an accountable institution with qualitative clinical outcomes. All our hospitals will be eyeing at NABH accreditation in immediate future,” said Dr. Shridhar Thakur, Founder of Infigo Lifesciences. 

IIFL AMC launched the IIFL India Private Equity Fund, a close-ended SEBI-registered Category II Alternative Investment Fund, in May 2018. The fund seeks to back professional entrepreneurs at an early stage in emerging sectors like healthcare, technology, financial services and consumer goods. 

RJ Corp to set up premium tea parlours partnering with TWG Tea

Ravi Jaipuria promoted RJ Corp is entering into an exclusive agreement with Singapore based TWG tea to setup tea lounges in India.

Regarded as world’s premium and one of the biggest luxury tea chains, TWG will enter Delhi, Mumbai.

"We will set up premium tea parlours starting around third quarter of this year. This deal complements our existing portfolio of brands across food and beverages and we will leverage our existing strengths to take this association forward,” shared Jaipuria in a press statement. 

At present RJ Corp is heavily into food businesses and is one of the biggest bottling arms of PepsiCo.

It also run UK based cafe chain Costa Coffee in Indian market.

The group also has the franchisee right for KFC and Pizza Hut businesses in North and east market.

“The average cost of setting up an outlet would be Rs 10 crore. RJ Corp will begin with Delhi and Mumbai, and sell packaged TWG tea at hotels and upscale retail stores,” added Jaipuria. 

Polish make-up brand Inglot eyes 100 stores in India by 2020

Polish cosmetics brand Inglot aims to ramp up presence and marketing in India with plans to reach 100 stores by 2020. Currently, the premium cosmetics brand has 14 stores in the country concentrated in metros like Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru and tier 2 cities like Ludhiana and Chandigarh.

The 30-year-old brand is present in close to 80 countries with 600 stores globally. It entered India in 2008 through a franchise partnership with Major Brands. Apart from being present on ground through stores in malls and shopping centres, the brand was also available on the franchise partner’s portal. Last year, Inglot became available on Falguni Nayar’s beauty and cosmetics portal Nykaa.

Zbigniew Inglot, chairman of the board of directors, Inglot says, “While we are a 30-year-old company, we started global expansion only 10 years back. We started with Canada, the Middle East and US and now are available in 80 countries. In our experience, some markets need time and research and after seven years in India, we are ready to ramp up our presence.”

He adds that at a global level, the brand opens 1.5 to 2 stores a week currently. In India, over the next four years, the brand will open nearly two stores a month in order to achieve its target of 100 stores by 2020.

The range of cosmetics from Inglot is priced in the premium price band starting at Rs 600 for nail paints to Rs 5,500 for a make-up palette. The brand has developed the concept of ‘freedom system’ where users can buy single ‘squares’ of make-up and assemble their own palettes. In this case, single squares start at Rs 400 and the physical palette that holds these squares start at Rs 500.

Tushar Ved, president, Major Brands India says, “The brand has seen a growth of 18 to 20 per cent over the past seven years. Going forward, we shall introduce new products, invest in on-ground marketing through makeover activities and advertise in print. We do not plan to have tiered pricing for India and intend to continue playing in the premium cosmetics category since it is directly linked to the quality of the raw materials used at Inglot’s manufacturing unit.”

The company flagged off its marketing campaign on Women’s Day in Mumbai through a successful attempt to create a world record for most people painting their fingernails simultaneously. Around 1,328 women participated in this event painted their nails with the range of Inglot nail enamels. The brand broke the previous record of 1,156 people painting nails simultaneously which was created by Taiwan Nail Association at Banqiao Stadium, New Taipei City, Taiwan on 27 April 2011. Jack Brockbank from the Guinness World Records was present at the event to validate the record.

Inglot will be customising some of its products for the Indian market through shades that compliment the Indian skin tone, and any products that may be specific to the market. It has already developed a kohl pencil after feedback from the Indian franchise partner and will continue exploring new avenues for customisation.

Massive Restaurants to open more Pan-Asian ‘Pa Pa Ya’ branded restaurants

After tasting its success in Mumbai, Pa PaYa, the modern Asian Bistro and Tapas Bar, is all set to travel to Delhi. Massive Restaurants is planning more outlets of PaPaYa in Delhi as well as Mumbai. According to Zorawar Kalra, Managing Director, Massive Restaurants, the company will open two PaPaYa outlets in Delhi coming months, while adding one more in Mumbai. “PaPaYa has been an eye-opener for us. The restaurant received fabulous feedback since we opened our first restaurant in Mumbai. We always thought that our comfort zone is Indian cuisine. But PaPaYa has made us believe that if we follow the same tenets of passion, and research, you can make success out of other cuisines as well,” Kalra said. The company has 10 operational restaurants under four popular brands like Farzi Café, Made In Punjab, Masala Library, and PaPaYa. When asked about their expansion plans, Kalra said they will be opening six more outlets across brands by the end of the financial year 2015-16. These include Farzi Café (Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore); Made in Punjab (Noida and Mumbai) and Masala Library (Delhi). “We will add three more PaPaYa restaurants over the next six to eight months time,” he added. While expanding their brands in India, Kalra said that the company will also be opening outlets in destinations outside India, especially in Middle East through franchisee business. Farzi Café is all set to open in Dubai and the company is confident of opening a couple more in Middle East in coming years. “All our international expansion will be through franchise business,” Kalra added.

SOCH TO OPEN 25 FRANCHISE OUTLETS IN 2016

Ethnic women wear brand Soch sees 2016 year optimistically as it hopes to set up 35 to 40 more outlets next year in India. Of these total stores, 20-25 will be opened through the franchise mode.

“We intend to open 35-40 stores by the end of 2016. Our plan is to grow in Central, West and South India followed by opening Soch outlets in North and East of India. At present, our total number of franchise outlets stands at 15. We intend to open 20-25 more stores via the franchise route by 2016,” Vinay Chatlani, MD & CEO, Soch, Said.

The brand currently has 62 stores across India at key locations including Bangalore, Mysore, Mangalore, Hubli, Chennai, Coimbatore, Cochin, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Thane, Pune, Kolhapur, Vijayawada, Lucknow, Indore, Bhopal, Belgaum, Visakhapatnam, Gulbarga, Kanpur, Salem, Dharwad, Tumkur and Calicut.

Soch, which came into being in February 2005 with its first store, offers fashionable range of designer wear for women at an affordable price. The brand has redefined the traditional Indian outfit for women of all ages and has a wide range of stylish and elegant designer ethnic wear like sarees, salwar kameez, kurtis and bottoms for fairer sex.

Delhi Darbar opens first outlet in Eastern India

Leading restaurant chain Delhi Darbar has marked its presence in the state with the opening of an outlet in Bhubaneswar on franchise model.

This is the 46th outlet of the restaurant chain in the world and the first one in eastern India. Abroad, the multi-cuisine eatery has outlets in Dubai, Kabul and Russia and in the country, it has presence in cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Udaipur, Raipur etc.

"The outlet in Bhubaneswar is spread over 2,300 sq ft. It will comprise of dining hall and a lounge. The rates of the items served will be competitive," said Akashdeep Mohanty, the promoter of the restaurant.

Delhi Darbar is famous for authentic indo-fusion Indian, Tandoor and Chinese food.

Customers can enjoy the taste of indo fusion cuisine mixed up with the Odia cuisines, he added. More than 70 items of Tandoor, 50 Indian cuisines and about 55 Chinese items will be served at the new restaurant. 

Sbarro hopeful of expanding their India footprint to 50 outlets by mid-2016

Sbarro, chain of Pizza restaurants popular for New York style Pizza internationally, has plans to expand their footprint from the current 15 outlets to more than 50 by middle of next year. Sbarro has opened their 15th outlet last week in Bandra in Mumbai. The international chain based in Columbus, Ohio in the US has three regional franchisees in India for North & East, West and Southern region. 

The international restaurant chain which currently has 1,000 odd stores in 44 countries is keen to expand their network in Asia in general, South East Asia in particular, and the Pacific region. Naresh Vinod Worlikar, Vice President -International Franchise Operations-Asia, Sbarro said that the focus currently is in establishing presence in countries like Malaysia, Myanmar, China, Korea, Australia, etc. Terming India as a potential market for Sbarro, Worlikar said that they are hopeful of adding 15 to 20 new outlets in India by the end of this year. 

As part of their expansion and maintaining the standards, Sbarro will be soon launching Training Centres, one each in a Franchisee region, in India. Worlikar said that one of the operational outlet will be designated as a Training Centre and people will be imparted six to eight weeks training at these centres. Currently, Sbarro has training facilities in the US and Philippines. 

Disclosing the business model, Worlikar said that Sbarro works with Master Franchisees in international markets. These franchisees could be for a country or for multiple countries, or for regions within a country. “These franchisees have the right to develop stores under their corporation or appoint sub-franchisees ,” he said.

Talking about the freedom to localize the recipes, Philippe Jore, Vice President – International Training & Culinary, Sbarro said that while formulations remained the same internationally, localization is permitted in terms of Pepperoni and use of flavours. “In India, considering the market sentiments, Chicken is used in place of Pork or Beef,” he said. “The differentiator for Sbarro is the fresh dough, fresh sauces, and 100% real mozzarella cheese. We are the only international Pizza brand which offer Pizza by Slice. Customer can order a full pizza or in slices,” he said.

Loungewear chain Valentine Retail Plans to Open 200 Stores by 2018

Ashapura Intimates Fashion Ltd., a leading manufacturer of intimate –loungewear garments has a vision for aggressive growth in the retail segment. The company plans to open 200 Valentine loungewear retail showrooms all over India within 3 years on franchise Model.

The company opened its 2^nd Valentine loungewear retail showroom  in Bangalore in February 2015 and will be opening its 3^rd showroom in Bangalore by March end.

Two Valentine showrooms in Ahmedabad will be opened by the company in April 2015.

 The company plans to open 26 Valentine showrooms in Mumbai within one year. Majority Valentine showrooms in Mumbai will be company owned showrooms. Ashapura Intimates Fashion Limited has emerged having largest product basket globally in a niche segment of loungewear. 

With the vertically integrated manufacturing, the 2^nd state of the art plant will open in Gujarat in near future, the company will have biggest capacity in production & warehousing in loungewear in India.

Under the ‘Valentine’ brand, the company sells intimate garments such as lounge wear, bridal night wear, honeymoon sets, bathrobes, nightwear, relax-wear, sportswear, leggings, camisole, bra & panties etc. The new loungewear range is meant for gents, ladies, kids and toddlers.

In India, The Group has 130 distributors and products are sold through 13,000 retail outlets across the country. The company has MOUs with online shopping sites like Myntra, Jabong/ Home Shop 18 and own website.

Subway opened an all-women operated outlet in Mumbai

Quick service restaurant chain Subway on 6 March 2015 opened an all-women operated outlet at Andheri, Mumbai to mark the International Women's day on 8 March.

With the new outlet opening in suburban Andheri, the Connecticut-based company's store count has now reached 500 in India.

Subway entered India in 2001. It operates in 70 cities across the country and has plans to take its total number of stores to 1000 by 2018. It is targeting tier II, tier III cities to fuel its growth plans.

Subway is an American fast food restaurant franchise that primarily sells submarine sandwiches (subs) and salads. It is one of the fastest growing franchises in the world, with 43035 restaurants in 108 countries and territories.

It is the largest single-brand restaurant chain and the largest restaurant operator globally.

Mumbai’s ‘Let’s Talk’ opens first centre in Chandigarh

After opening 35 Centres in Mumbai, Let’s Talk, a premier organization specializing in communicative English, opened its first centre at Chandigarh albeit in franchise mode in collaboration with Captive Edu World.

Aakash Kadam, Founder Director who was present on the occasion told that “Chandigarh would act as a first step for expansion in North, the region where we will soon have major presence”. Chandigarh is a window to states like Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir. Once we are established in Chandigarh, then we would fan out to neighbouring states.

When asked how different, Let’s Talk would be from several institutions operating in Chandigarh, Aakash Kadam said that “our USP would be the sandwiched training programme that not only includes English language training but also developes one’s overall personality through grooming, etiquette training etc.

It is a holistic programme for imparting communicative English and on development of winning images of people. He said till date Let’s Talk has trained 1,50,000 people including high flying executives of MNCs, aspiring actors, students and even housewives. He said that Let’s Talk would bring in whiff of fresh air into the Image Makeover communicative English industry.

Anil Chalana of Captive Edu World added that with the intervention of technology, we would ensure that the quality of instruction in Chandigarh is at a par with the one given to Bollywood stars and other high profile people of Mumbai.

GOLDEN JUBILEE FOR GOLD’S GYM

Gold’s Gym, one of the leading names in worldwide fitness and health celebrated its golden jubilee this year. The brand has 80 gyms pan-India. It is known for its passion, heritage and experience, making it an esteemed authority in lifestyle fitness. 

Gold’s Gym is dynamic in nature and in anticipation of the need of its members offers innovative fitness techniques, upgrades its equipment periodically and incorporates unique fitness regimes like mixed martial arts, Boot Kamp, Zumba, thereby adding an element of fun to fitness. G Ramachandran, Promoter and Director, Gold’s Gym shares, “It is a great moment for us, as we enter the 51st year of operations. With 80 operational centres in India alone and 700 centres across the world, we are elated to announce 15 more outlets which are in the pipeline.”

 Adding to it, Karan Valecha, Director, Gold’s Gym India says, “Gold's Gym since its inception has been striving hard to provide the right opportunity to achieve a healthy lifestyle. And with the expansion plans, we are confident to continue spreading this idea to more and more people."

Gold’s Gym started in Venice California in 1965. Its operations started in India in 2002, when the first Gold’s Gym India branch was set up in Mumbai. It provides a comprehensive approach to the health and well being of its members helping them burn fat, tone muscle, build strength, increase flexibility and improve cardiovascular health.

Taco bell rings its bell in Mumbai

America’s Mexican fast food restaurant chain, Taco Bell recently opened two more outlets in Mumbai. The outlets are located in Ghatkopar and Thane. Taco Bell is a part of Yum! Restaurants India which is a subsidiary of ‘Yum! Brands’. Internationally, Taco Bell has over 6000 stores in 16 countries including India. In India, Taco Bell has four outlets in Bangalore and now three in Mumbai. ‘Yum! Brands’ owns three of the leading restaurant brands worldwide – Pizza Hut, KFC and Taco Bell.

Launched in India in 2010, Taco Bell serves Mexican fast food that is both craveable and packed with flavours. With absolutely new food formats and bold flavours, Taco Bell is a delight for consumers who want to experience some ‘food adventure’.

Unnat Varma, General Manager, Taco Bell & Pizza Hut, India said: “At Taco Bell, we serve fast food that is crunchy, cheesy and extremely flavourful. Our experience both in Bangalore and Mumbai has been fantastic with consumers thoroughly enjoying new food formats like Tacos, Chalupas and Quesadillas. Though our food has familiar ingredients but they are done very differently.”

Taco Bell menu boasts of items that are hot and cold, soft and crunchy, all at the same time - a true multi-sensorial food experience. 

Tata Group’s Mia to spread its shine via franchising

Tata Group's jewellery division, Tanishq, will open up to 25 standalone stores of its sub-brand 'Mia' by 2016. Mia was launched by Tanishq in 2011. Almost all stores will be franchisee run .Out of the 25 stand-alone stores; eight-nine stores will be opened in this fiscal year. Mia is targeted at working women. At present, there are three Mia stores in Mumbai, Bengaluru and Pune.

Sandeep Kulhalli, Senior Vice-President (Retail and Marketing) Jewellery Division, Tanishq, said: "While, Tanshiq will continue to sell Mia brand jewellery. Growth of business for Mia will come from standalone stores. We plan to open up to 25 standalone Mia stores by 2016. After initial years of support from Tanishq, we see opportunity in growing Mia brand via standalone stores.”

The Mia collection takes its inspiration from the unexplored finesse in the cross-sections of sliced luscious fruits. At the heart of every piece of Mia jewellery is the unrivalled lustre of fruits. An expression of modern luxury, each product forms an independent piece and tells its own little story. Colour stones like Mint Amethyst, Pink Amethyst, Lemon Topaz, Beer Quartz, Smoky Quartz and more were used to add diversity to the collection. 

Canon opens 124th Image Square outlet

Canon, a digital imaging brand launched its 10th Canon Image Square (CIS) in Mumbai. Canon Image Squares are the brands exclusive outlets. The brand has so far opened 123 stores across 64 cities in the country. Canon’s service reach extends to over 3200 towns with 18 Canon camera service centres and 38 printer Canon Care Centres. This store in Virar, Mumbai, takes the total tally to 18th Canon Image Square in Maharashtra.

The company plans to expand its retail business by setting up exclusive Canon Image Square outlets across the country.  With the objective to reach closer to the customer and to develop an engaging relationship with existing as well as new customers, Canon Image Square is further expanding its presence in western part of India. All existing CIS stores in Mumbai are located in different catchment areas and are easily accessed by a wide cross section of customers for a world class experience.

The store will offer customers the latest Canon cameras, lenses and photography accessories such as camera bags, tripods, chargers etc., in addition to exciting printing products and solutions. Customers are provided complete experience of the products; they can take prints of photographs, directly from their smart phones, tablets, pen drives, memory cards or CD’s. Canon also offers free training for all DSLR camera buyers through the CIS stores.

Puma eyes top spot in India through store expansion

Puma, the global brand known for its lifestyle sports apparel and shoes, is looking to strengthen its position in India. It is eyeing the top slot in the segment via a nationwide network expansion as well as the launch of its global brands pitched at the Indian sports enthusiast. Abhishek Ganguly, the new managing director of PUMA India, is looking to reposition the brand in the country.

“We are in process of creating a strong brand awareness through various marketing and product launch initiative,” Ganguly said. “We are bullish on India and we have seen a major shift to high end products by Indian consumers. Hence, we want to bring our global sports assets to India shortly."

According to Ganguly, Indian consumers are ready to move into high-end technical shoes which costs Rs 10000-15,000 for daily jogging. "A few years ago, we saw the trend of buying any kind of sports shoes for jogging by Indian middle class families. Nowadays, they are more brand conscious, unable to compromise on quality and ready to pay premium for the sports shoes," he said. 

Puma will continue their investments in India by adding more stores in cities as well as Tier-II cities. "We don’t believe in setting up more stores just for the sake of expansion. We are looking select pockets,”Ganguly said, adding that the company has identified new malls coming up at Mumbai, Delhi and Hyderabad to start the new stores.

Marks & Spencer opens first lingerie store in India

To capitalises on the growth opportunities in the lingerie and beauty markets, global retail major Marks & Spencer today unveiled its first standalone lingerie and beauty store in India. The store, covering 5000 square feet, was opened by model and Bollywood actress Lisa Haydon and Venu Nair, Managing Director of Marks and Spencer Reliance India, at Infinity Mall, Mumbai.

Speaking on the occasion, Lisa Haydon said: “It’s great to have such a large and dedicated lingerie and beauty store for shoppers and I’m sure that women will love it.”

Venu Nair, Managing Director of M&S Reliance India said, “The standalone concept we’ve unveiled today capitalises on the growth opportunities in the lingerie and beauty markets in India. The format with a smaller footprint also allows us to access even more prime positions in leading shopping malls in line with our international growth strategy to have a presence in these key retail locations.”

Marks & Spencer lingerie and beauty stores will showcase the best of M&S’s quality, stylish lingerie, with edited collections to showcase the season’s key trend of florals and pale tones in all shapes and sizes.

Source: Financial Express

Italian furniture brand Natuzzi plans expansion in India; seeks franchisees

Italian furniture and upholstery brand Natuzzi, which entered the living rooms of the aspiring Indian families in 2010 with a flagship store in Delhi, plans another 20 shop-in-shop stores by end this year. The company, which opened its second flagship store in Mumbai recently, is looking for potential franchisees to expand presence. At present, Natuzzi has 12 points of sales in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Gurgaon and Coimbatore. 

Natuzzi is a part of the 514-million euro NYSE-listed Natuzzi Group that designs, produces and sells a vast range of armchairs, sofas and furniture accessories. It exports innovative, high-quality sofas and armchairs to 123 countries in 5 continents. 

Nitin Bahl, country manager, Natuzzi India, said, “Natuzzi Store at Mumbai is a testimony of our continued commitment to this market. Ahmedabad, Pune and Goa are of strategic importance to our growth plans in the country and we are in the process of expanding our presence in these markets.” 

The company also plans to develop a network of Natuzzi and Italsofa branded stores across all key locations in Western Region including Ahmadabad and Pune in the near term. 

The store will give the customers of Mumbai a chance to experience all - from classic leather furniture and relaxed living room environment to sophisticated furniture of modern design and trendy colours.