Reliance Retail is all set to Rope in Kirana Stores as Franchise Partners for Jio Mart.

 

The Mukesh Ambani-owned firm Reliance Retail will exit direct sale of packaged food, grocery and FMCG goods on its e-commerce platform JioMart by roping in kirana stores as franchise partners that will sell these products to consumers in their respective neighbourhoods. This marks a shift in strategy that differentiates it from other big online grocery platforms.

Reliance has also decided to shelve its B2B cash-and-carry store format, Reliance Market, which will be turned into fulfillment centres for B2B delivery of products to kiranas. The neighbourhood stores will place their orders online and get deliveries at their stores.

The kiranas will source goods from Reliance or elsewhere, said two senior industry executives aware of the plans. In the case of products ordered on JioMart and not in stock with the kiranas—which typically sell the 300-400 most popular items—Reliance Retail will supply them and the margins will be shared equally.

Also, Reliance will continue with the sale of perishables like fruits and vegetables from its stores or fulfilment centres.

In order to pilot this system, JioMart has signed in nearly 56,000 kiranas from 30 cities. Reliance Retail is looking at enrolling kiranas in more than 100 cities by April and will eventually implement this format wherever JioMart has operations.

Trek Bicycle looks to expand presence in India.

American cycling brand Trek Bicycle plans to expand its reach to around 125 cities in India by adding 20-25 retail stores each year for the next three years, a top company official said. The company, which sells premium and super premium bicycles, currently has presence in around 41 cities in the country with about 45 retail stores based on franchise format.

"In terms of expanding our presence in the country, we plan to open 20-25 stores each year with an aim to be present in 125 cities by 2022," Trek Bicycle India Country Manager Navneet Banka said. There is a huge shift in the mindset of people towards healthy lifestyle and fitness which is fuelling growth of cycling industry in the country, he added.

Besides fitness, a lot of youngsters are also taking up cycling as a sport which is also a positive sign for the industry, Banka said. The Trek range in India starts at Rs 29,000 and depending on consumer specifications and customisation, the performance bicycles can cost up to Rs 20 lakh.

The company has so far sold over 30,000 bicycles in the country and has even tied up with financial institutions for finance options to buy its products from its authorised retail stores. Trek started selling premium bicycles in India via distributors in 2007 and last year established a 100 per cent subsidiary in the country.

When asked if the company plans to set up local manufacturing in the country, Banka said that for the time being it will keep on making its products available by importing them from various countries like the US, Germany, China and Taiwan. Trek currently offers more than 30 bicycle models in the country across road, mountain, and hybrid range along with accessories, merchandise and riding gear.

As per industry estimates, the size of cycling market in India is around 16.3 million units per year currently. Trek caters to the super-premium segment which is currently around 30,000 units annually and has grown at a CAGR of 20 per cent over the past five years.

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. 

Korean lifestyle brand Mumuso planning to boost their retail presence

South Korean lifestyle brand Mumuso expansion strategy is to expand its presence all over India and is aiming at a business turnover of Rs 1,000 crore with over 300 outlets by mid-2022, a top company official said.

As part of its expansion, Mumuso would have a blend of both the company-owned and franchise stores.

It would invest between Rs 80 lakh to Rs 1.2 crore towards setting the company owned and franchise stores.

The company, which had entered the Indian market in September, 2018 with its stores in Kolkata and Mumbai, plans to expand to other metro, tier I and tier II cities as it is banking on range of affordable products.

Besides, the company plans to go online to tap into the rapid growing   e-commerce business in the country.

“ India being a fast emerging market for retail industry, they are expecting an accelerated growth in a short span of time,” he said.

Mumuso offerings includes health and beauty products, fashion home accessories to apparel and digital products. 

The new stores are expected to open  in cities such as Delhi, Chennai, Bengaluru, 
Hyderabad, Kolkata, Pune, Goa, Jaipur, Indore and Surat. 

The company is also planning to source locally special apparels and small leather products. 
As per the FDI norms, it is mandatory to source 30 per cent goods from India in single brand retail trade. 
Currently, Mumuso has presence in around 30 countries.

Asics eyes local production for FDI

Japanese sportswear brand Asics is planning local sourcing in India so that it can apply for FDI and benefit from lower duties. Considering its competitors like Nike and Puma have already got FDI clearance to start their own stores, Asics has to wait till it completes the 30 per cent local sourcing norm before it can get away from the franchise model.

Unlike its peers who are looking at manufacturing ‘Make in India’ products, Asics is still an imported footwear brand although it has started some amount of local production for apparel recently.

Speaking to BusinessLine, Rajat Khurana, Director, Asics India, said: “While we are an imported brand, we should soon start with 10-15 per cent of local footwear production in the next two to three years. Applying for FDI requires us to have 30 per cent local sourcing and some of our competitors like Nike have already met these norms to start their own stores in the country.’’ With FDI in single brand retail, foreign companies can own and operate their stores instead of having a local franchise operation and is also expected to help in lower prices in the country.

Currently, Asics imports its footwear primarily from China and Indonesia, much like other international brands including Clarks and Skechers, despite having Indian partners for their ventures.

“When we entered India, we had signed a general distribution agreement with Reliance Retail which lasted for four years. We have our subsidiary since 2015 and expect sales to triple by 2017 as the market is growing and we expect to get profitable with economies of scale,’’ added Khurana.

In India, Asics is now positioning itself from a sportswear to a lifestyle brand. “India is changing and it is the lifestyle segment which is growing at nearly 20 per cent,’’ added Khurana. Currently, Asics has 14 monobrand stores and expects to add another 12 stores this year. It has also been spending on events like the Mumbai Marathon by becoming the official sponsors for three years to build its brand in the country.

Asics, which has its headquarters in Kobe in Japan, has its biggest markets in the US and Europe and considers Japan as its second largest market.

French menswear company Celio to increase local sourcing

French menswear company Celio International is planning to take the franchise route and increase local sourcing in the country.

With 41 stores and 130 shop-in-shops, Celio had entered the country six years ago through a joint venture with Future Lifestyle Fashion. Since then it has steadily increased its stake from 50 per cent earlier to 97 per cent.

Rajiv Nair, CEO, Celio Future Fashion, said: “We need a franchise model to penetrate smaller cities and high streets as there are plans to open 8-10 stores every year. As a company we become less capital-intensive with franchises who can make the business run profitably.’’

Celio is the largest selling menswear brand in France with a 18 per cent share. Almost two years ago, the owner of Celio International, Marc Grosman, had visited India to apply for higher FDI, which is allowed for single brand retail. Since then the French company has been steadily increasing stake and hence bringing in capital to build the business in India.

“There has been capital infusion from Celio International as we have increased our stake to 97 per cent while the balance of 3 per cent is still held by Future Lifestyle Fashion,’’ added Nair.

Celio is now gearing up for competition as international brands have been steadily entering the market with companies like Zara, Gas, Gap and now H&M making their way to India. “Today, we have 18 per cent growth among our like-to-like stores but have to wait for another year before we can make money in India,’’ said Nair.

E-commerce is also a channel being explored by the retail company as almost 9 per cent of sales currently come from this channel.

“We still cannot do e-commerce directly but once we get FDI complaint we may look at a payment gateway from our company site,’’ said Nair.

Also local sourcing is expected to increase from 60 to75 per cent as certain products cannot typically get made in India. Celio continues to outsource from places such as Tirupur, Bengaluru and Ludhiana.

As Nair adds, “While we have to follow the norms for local sourcing, there will continue to be imported items like jackets which are best made abroad.’’

Bulgari re-enters India, opens first boutique store in Delhi

Luxury jewellery company Bulgari has re-entered India and opened its first boutique store at New Delhi’s DLF Emporio after getting nod from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board to set up single retail brand stores under a joint venture.

A part of the LVMH Group, the Italian brand is known for its jewellery, watches, accessories and fragrances. Earlier, the brand was present in India through a franchise partner, but withdrew its stores in 2011.

“Indians are very big jewellery consumers and are buying more than any other nation. But they are largely buying from family and neighbourhood jewellers, who are essentially local players. We are selling jewellery across many countries and believe we will be able to get a growing market share out of the total cake. As the market is expanding, there is room for everybody to grow,” Jean-Christophe Babin, CEO of the Bulgari Group, told Business Line. He said Indian consumers buy Bulgari products when they travel abroad and contribute significantly to the company’s business when they are out of the country. Now that the company is establishing its boutique stores in the country, it hopes to get bigger business.

“In the current joint venture, we have a majority stake and we decide everything and we believe we can represent the brand in a more complete way and present all the facets of the brand and have more control over the distribution.” The company did not give specifics about its Indian partner.

Asked about expansion plans, Babin said, “Given the distribution of demographics in the country, there is room for growth for luxury brands in 5-10 cities in the coming years. But the point is that there are not the right kinds of retail spaces or malls in these cities that meet the requirements of luxury brands.”

He said the company could look at opening boutique stores in luxury hotels but added that these had limitations as they attract limited traffic and are not enough to develop a big luxury business.

“Our expansion strategy will need to be a combination of luxury malls and selective luxury hotels,” Babin added. For now, the company is looking out for the right kind of luxury retail spaces to open additional boutique stores.

Sennheiser to open five exclusive outlets in India

German audio products company, Sennheiser, is planning to open five exclusive retail outlets in franchisee mode across India over the next three years, according to Kapil Gulati, India vice-president (sales and marketing – consumer segment).

The company, which forayed into the Indian market in 2007, opened its first exclusive showroom in Kolkata in January 2014. Pan-India, it also has nine shop-in-shops and over 2,500 touch points, with plans to double the number over the next two years.

“South India is a key market for us, contributing over 40 per cent to our India revenues. We are looking at setting up one of the proposed exclusive showrooms down south,” Gulati told mediapersons here on Tuesday.

Sennheiser, which has been witnessing a 70 per cent year-on-year growth in India, currently has over 100 headset models in its India portfolio, with prices of in-ear headphones starting from Rs 990 and on-ear headsets from Rs 1,490. “From Sennheiser’s standpoint, in-ear headphones still command 60 per cent of the Indian headset market,” he added.

Fabfurnish.Com To Launch Stores Via Franchise Route

Leading online player in the home furnishings and furniture category, Fabfurnish.com has plans to open modular kitchen and wardrobes stores at the end of this month. All of them will be franchisee run outlets.  Besides its successful online presence, the brand has two stores in Delhi-NCR and two in Bengaluru.

Vikram Chopra, CEO & Founder, Fabfurnish.com says: “Since we are expanding our scope of leveraging our brand, we think of offline as an experience and not as a sales point. This is why, we partner with those who share our vision of creating an experience more than a sales standpoint. We would pick someone who would nurture it and further help us build our brand.  We are looking at opening partner stores in Pune, Hyderabad, Noida, New Delhi and Chennai, as there is an encouraging customer demand in these cities. All of these will be franchise outlets.”

On the offline presence Chopra adds: “As a brand, we want to provide a holistic experience to our consumers, and offline stores help us do that by giving customers a chance to experience the products before they buy. Thus, stores also help us build trust and credibility.”

Brand’s target group is urbane homemaker, in the age-group of 26-45 years, who is tech-savvy, well-informed, and has a taste for good living.

Celio continues India focus, targets opening 100 stores by ’16

Celio, the French fashion retailer is all set to strengthen its connection with Indian customers. The brand, is eyeing a bigger pie of India’s organized menswear retail market. Celio brings an essentially urban European fashion trend through its collection of shirts, jackets, waistcoats, trousers, suits, jackets and accessories.

In India, Celio offers a wide range of smart casual, business wear, sportswear, clubwear and denims. Celio had stepped into the country in 2008, the brand opened its first store in R City, Mumbai in 2009. Today the brand runs 40 exclusive brand stores which are fully company owned and operated and 128 shop-in-shops. The brand has also penetrated through large format stores like Pantaloons, Central and Lifestyle. Celio is looking at rolling out 100 stores by 2016.

Riding the booming e-commerce wave, the brand has already registered 7 percent of its total revenue in the domestic market through online sales. It has tied up with leading ecommerce portals like Myntra, Jabong, Flipkart and Amazon. “The urban Indian youth is aspiring for fast, effortless fashion. In India the younger generation is as fashion seeking as their global counterparts. They have exposure of international trends through the net, TV and mobile. We want people to come up to us for global fashion,” says Rajiv Nair, CEO, Celio, Future Fashion.

Driven by a strong conviction in India market, the brand is eyeing deeper penetration through retail expansion and a strategic communication plan targeted at young consumers. “We are essentially a retail oriented company which means our philosophy or strategy is store, product and customer service centric. We are exploring various routes to increase our penetration and strongly believe internet is the way,” he says.

“We have a legacy of two decades and in India we are just a starter, we are still understanding the market. We see ourselves as a retailer first, backed by a fantastic manufacturing set up. We manufacture four crore garments in Asia per annum and 10 lakh of these per annum are for India. We are taking the slow route. We have set the route and standards. Now, our goal is to get profits at the corporate level,” adds Nair.

Although the brand is not in a hurry to open franchisee stores it does plan to slowly tap that route. “Even though we are looking at franchisee stores for expansion, it won’t be bigger than our company stores. We understand that we have to take the franchisee route to get into smaller territories,” sums up Nair.

Fastrack On A Fast Trail Of Expansion

Launched in 1998, Fastrack became an independent urban youth brand in 2005. Titan’s young brand, Fastrack now plans to take its store count from current 150 to 175 by the end of FY 2014. Apart from watches and sunglasses, Fastrack extended its footprint into accessories in 2009 with an exciting range of bags, belts and wallets and has today successfully notched up the title of being one of the most loved youth fashion brand in the country.

Fastrack started franchising in 2009 and its USP is ​b​rand preference among the youth, high stock turns, low scale of initial investment, working capital, high profitability. As a corporate, Fastrack focuses on building itself and making great products available to its consumers. It believes that the operational aspects of retailing are best handled by business associates as their local knowledge and dynamism provide a great value add.  This strategy has delivered optimum results in the brand’s retail channel.

Fastrack made remarkable achievements and achieved many milestones during 2008-2013. The brand rolled out to more than 150 locations within four years of launching and developed a bold new retail identity that brings the brand alive. It also clocked Rs.100 Crore of annual sale in the third year of channel operations.​

Nike to open owned stores in India

US-based sports shoes and apparel supplier and manufacturer Nike has made a proposal to the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP) under the commerce and industry ministry to set up fully-owned stores in India. Single-brand retail policy allows 100 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI).

Nike is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, is one of the world’s largest suppliers of athletic shoes and apparel in the world with a market capitalization of $68 billion.

The company has been present in India since 1996 and currently operates through a network of local distributors and retail partners. Nike’s entry into India was through a seven-year licence agreement with Sierra Industrial Enterprises, which was later done away with to become a 100 per cent-owned subsidiary of the US parent company.

“Nike welcomes the government’s decision on foreign direct investment in single-brand retail franchise in India. Nike currently operates its business here through local distributors and retail partners. This model works well for us and we may consider exploring opening Nike-owned stores in the future,” the company said in an email response to Business Standard.

Competing in the sports wear category with the likes of Puma and Reebok, which work through franchise and local supplier arrangement, Nike is first in the space to make a move to open 100 per cent-owned retail outlets.

Swiss watch maker Swatch had recently made an application to DIPP for setting up own stores. Swedish fashion retailer H&M and furniture retailer IKEA are in the process of setting up their flagship stores through 100 per cent FDI route.

Experts say the application by Nike is a sign of greater commitment of the brand to the Indian market. Fully-owned stores offer a lot more control over quality, consumer experience and give freedom to the brand to choose locations for stores. “It’s a sign that a brand is here to stay for long,” said Mohit Bahl, head of retail at KPMG in India.

Lacoste to expand footprint through the franchise route

French brand, Lacoste, has decided to aggressively expand its India footprint through the franchise route. The company is looking to increase its store count to 90, adding 20-25 franchise stores in cities like Surat, Kochi, Lucknow and Jalandhar. Lacoste’s product portfolio includes: clothing, footwear, leather goods, perfumes, eyewear and watches.

A symbol of relaxed elegance, Lacoste was created in 1933 by famous tennis champion René Lacoste. Lacoste India is a strategic alliance between Lacoste and Sports and Leisure Apparel (SLA). SLA has the exclusive rights to manufacture Lacoste branded garments in India and distribute/market in India, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka. It also has exclusive rights to distribute/market Lacoste branded footwear in the India and Maldives.

Established in 1993, the company considers India, an important market for growth. It is focusing on emerging markets of the world including China, Brazil and India. Currently, it enjoys presence through 45 points of sale pan India, covering 15 Indian cities, including one at Maldives.

Franchise model, most effective in tapping rural retail market, but Pricing, a major challenge in e-commerce: experts speak

More than 90% of rural retail market is left to be tapped and franchisee-based model is proving to be the most efficient one in tapping this market, echoed retail experts assembled at Evolve, a two day summit on retail and e-commerce organized by Sir M Visvesvaraya Institute of Management Studies and Research (SVIMS), a leading Mumbai-based business school.

“Our experiments in places like Kalol (Gujarat) and Karnal  (Haryana) is so far proving  that it is effective to set up a single big wholesale unit in remote places and encourage residents in villages nearby to run franchisees by sourcing products from the unit. In this way, villages will have access to the best of the products available in cities. We are running about 15 franchisee outlets around our Karnal wholesale outlet and is proving to be very successful,” said Dipayan Baishya, Associate Vice-President, Strategy, The Future group, addressing the audience assembled at the Evolve summit.

Future Group will be providing the right brand, technical and training support for the franchisees to ensure uniformity in the look and feel of these stores. He said at the moment, it made little sense to operate fully owned retail shops in tier-iii towns and villages.

In addition to rural, the Future Group plans to step up franchisee based models, in the form of convenient stores in metros like Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai as well. “Right now we have 100 franchisee-based convenient stores in Delhi and 200 stores throughout Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai. We plan to expand to more than 1000 convenient stores in these cities in the next two years,” said Mr. Baishya.

This would be an alternative viable option as in the next 5-7 years as the city is expected to face shortage in the availability of land for retail expansion. Customization of products and services, to suit the needs of regional and sub-regional population will be the key to success, he highlighted.

Supporting Mr Baishya’s view, Dr BR Manjunath, Director General, SVIMS said that the retail market in India is too nascent and retailers need to invest a fair share of time and resources to study understanding the customers for the next five years, as customization of products and services has become too critical today. 

In 2011, Indian retail market was about $470 billion and is expected to touch $675 billion by 2016. By 2020, the traditional and organized retail industry is expected to touch $ 1.3 trillion.

Mr. Jerry Rao, e-commerce expert and Chairman, Value and Budget Housing Corporation, said, pricing is currently a major challenge in e-commerce.  The e-commerce companies charge any rate today for their services, which may be too low or too high. According to Mr Rao, there needs to be more research and studies conducted to arrive at a standard pricing mechanism for different kinds of e-commerce products and services. “Should an e-commerce arm of a retail company sell its products at lesser rate compared to products sold out of its physical outlets is still a dilemma. The retailer could pass on the benefits he saves on rentals, staff and AC, to his e-commerce customers. However, this could also have a demoralizing impact on its retail employees. Similarly, how much a telecom company should charge its customer for using specialized calls like knowing Rahukalam or astrology  is still unclear. Should it be one rupee, five rupees or ten rupees?”

According to Mr Jerry Rao with the advancement of technology, availability of real time data will enable services with time-bound requirement of a five Star hotel or an airline to fill the unoccupied suits or business class seats through innovative concepts like last moment auctions, targeting the right customer profile. This technology to predict consumer interest is gradually moving into physical retail space. Iris screening technologies are being used to study the time spent by a particular consumer at various spaces of the super market, time spent in searching spots of her interest, products her interest, which could be utilized by companies for prediction of her interests and engagement with her of.

According to Nitin Mukadam, founder, localbaniya.com and CRM expert, Customer Relationship Management aided by data analytics is going to be the game changer from now. Technology will enable procurement of timely data based on the choices of the customer, which can be effectively used for customer engagement leading to customer loyalty.

According to Mr Mukadam, the technology is growing in such a way that it is today able to exactly predict what the customer is planning to buy, which section of an e-commerce site she visits often, what are her areas of particular interests etc. E-commerce companies could utilize this knowledge for customizing its services for this particular consumer. According to Mr Mukadam, an e-commerce company could build right data-bases by extracting intelligent data from Google analytics, incentivize the customer to register and then later engage customers in constant dialogue and foster customer communities through social media.

Mr Rahul Jagtiani, Founder, Plush Plaza, India’s home décor site said that e-commerce and social media is making it easy for the start-ups to gain visibility. “New Search engine optimization and search engine marketing models, social media sites and You Tube are enabling new entrepreneurs to gain maximum visibility in no time. These advantages were never there for a generation back entrepreneur,” said Jagtiani.

Mr Kartik Jain, Vice-President, Infibeam, a leading e-commerce site, the emergence of social-cloud-mobile media is enabling e-commerce companies to give multiple services to different vendors on a cloud-based model. The cloud-based model is negating the need for multiple server farms and at the same time enhancing the scalability and efficiency of services. 

According to Mr Jairaj Hegde, Vice-President, Sherwin Williams, India, Indian retailers should focus heavily upon improving supply chain management and training of man power. Today, there is an increasing need to deliver highly customized products and services on a real-time basis.  Most retail enterprises falter because they do not recognize that it is the supply chain which ensures Customer satisfaction and delight

Vinayak Bhat, Country Manager, FactSet India observed that FDI is going to change the whole retail scenario in the country. He observed in the new regime, there is going to be more opportunities for domestic micro and small and medium enterprises, partnership opportunities through joint ventures, franchisees and strategic licensing, and more job creation. This may put pressure on the kirana stores to innovate. E-commerce growth will result into creation of supply chain infrastructure, mobile commerce, social media leverage etc.

D. Balasubramaniam, partner, Ecovis RKCA, said the big retailer should make an attempt to learn methods on customer relationship and service from the local kirana stores and adapt them at their level. He focused on the strengths of Kirana stores, and forecasted that the Kirana stores in India would reinvent themselves, most probably on Supermarket model, to meet the customer expectations.  Ultimately, the cash Management is easy for Kirana stores, as in most Indian cities, rentals are far higher than in the west, which is a disincentive for the Retail trade.

Is HR ready for growth in retail and e-commerce? The industry says no, while the institutes think otherwise. Mr Ravindra Gupta of Micro Retail said, “If in acquisition of talent, its management and development is not done right, there is a huge rate of attrition. Hence innovative techniques are needed to retain the employee hired.”

Mr Rakesh Vanarse, founder, Brandcepts Advertising, said the retail sector has the potential of bringing in millions of job opportunities in the country. There lies a huge training potential at the level of retail management and retail operations. This is an opportunity for B-Schools, and other education and training centres to come up with new courses on retail operations management. 

The East India Company launches first franchise in Kuwait

The East India Company is once again expanding its global trade relationships with the exciting news that the first East India Company franchise store will launch in Kuwait in February.

Opening on 13 February 2013, this new franchise store will carry The East India Company's world renowned teas and coffees; artisan sweet and savoury biscuits; an exquisite chocolate range including luxurious bars and an enrobed selection of fruits, peels, coffee beans and nuts; and gourmet salts and sugars. 

The store will also feature a truly delightful new range of Chakra inspired herbal infusions that taste wonderful and help bring balance to the day.

The franchise will be operated by the Al Maousherji Group which is a family-owned business enterprise based in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia with subsidiaries based in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Sultanate of Oman, Bahrain and India. A grand opening of the store will be held by the British ambassador of Kuwait, and a VIP reception in the British ambassador's residence.

Helios in expansion mode

Helios, the multi-brand watch retailer from Titan Industries, plans to open another 13 stores in different parts of the country by the end of this fiscal. A wide range of latest designs across 20 international brands, including Tommy Hilfiger, FCUK, Fossil, Guess and Armani, ranging Rs 3,000 to Rs 48,000 would be available in the showrooms. By the end of this fiscal, Helios would have 50 stores in India and would open more such stores in future.

Indus-League mulls franchise model to expand in smaller cities

In a difficult retail environment when sales are subdued and retailers are battling pricing pressures, Future Ventures India Ltd-controlled Indus-League Clothing Ltd is using the franchise route to expand in smaller cities and keep entry-level prices intact. Indus-League sells apparel and accessories and owns brands such as Scullers, Indigo Nation, John Miller, Jealous 21, Urban Yoga, Daniel Hechter and has recently entered into a licensing agreement for Manchester United. 

“In smaller markets in tier II and III cities, we were finding it a little difficult to run our own stores owing to manpower and other logistical issues, and so we decided to open 10 franchise outlets more as a pilot project to see how they do. We gave them six months this year, and now we have decided to open another 10 by this Diwali. The franchise format would also speed up stores in these markets. While we are not opening any flagship stores there, we will use a combination of two-three brands in each store,” said Rachna Aggarwal, chief executive, Indus- League. 

The response to Manchester United stores and the merchandise has been extremely positive and we have been surprised by the kind of fan following the brand has, particularly among youngsters, Aggarwal added. 

“We have already opened seven Man U stores and will open another five stores in the next three months. The merchandise will also be available in Planet Sports stores and shop-in-shop formats. Though as of now Man U stores are mostly coming up in metros, we are opening one store in the new World Trade Centre in Jaipur,” said Aggarwal. 

Last year, the company opened around 16-18 flagship stores and is planning to open the same number of stores this year. Among this, 40-50 per cent will be in high streets and the rest in shopping malls. 

Landmark open to more brand tie-ups

Lifestyle department stores, Max Retail and Auchan hypermarkets will lead the growth for the $4.7-billion Dubai-based Landmark Group in India. Renuka Jagtiani, who spearheads the group's international business, said the target to achieve a billion dollar turnover from India is well on track with the addition of doughnut chain Krisy Kreme and the French hypermarket chain Auchan to its portfolio, reports Times of India. 

Jagtiani, who runs the business along with husband and Middle Eastern retailing czar Micky Jagtiani, said India clocked over Rs 3,000 crore in turnover last year with a growth of 30-35 per cent annually even as the group looks to bring more brands across different categories here. "We have been here for 11 years and as a group we believe in each one of our businesses. Grocery retailing has been important for us. Auchan is a great hypermarket partner with a track record of success in emerging markets so this part of the business will be significant for the group," said Jagtiani, vice-chairperson of Landmark Group. 

The group, which will be the franchise partner for the French retailer, aims to open 10-12 hypermarkets every year after it decided to discontinue its association with Dutch retail chain Spar. Jagtiani said if the Indian government decides to open up the multi-brand retail sector to foreign investment, it may look to change the ownership of Auchan iprovided both the parties agreed on it. The group has gone slow in its investment behind its fashion portfolio other than through Lifestyle and Max stores. "We are always on the lookout for brands and are open to associations, we are not limiting ourselves," said Jagtiani, who was instrumental in setting up the multi-brand fashion retail chain Splash. 

Landmark group franchises international brands such as New Look, Aftershock, Reiss and Koton in the Middle East as well as Bossini and Kappa in India. The group withdrew Springfield and Vincci from the Indian market during the 2008 economic downturn and cut back on expansion of other fashion brands, the report added. 

ZoomIn to roll out 50 offline franchise stores

Mumbai-based Zoomin Online (India) Pvt Ltd, a photo services start-up, plans to set up 45-50 offline stores by the end of this year through franchise model. At present, ZoomIn has 17 offline retail studios across the country, of which two are franchise-run stores and the rest are in partnership with retails such as Shopper’s Stop’s bookstore chain Crossword and Tata’s consumer electronics store Croma.

The company is also betting on digital camera sales this quarter after witnessing a doubling in user activity on its flagship portal Zoomin.com. Its website offers customised photo products such as mugs, calendars and wedding albums.

Elaborating on why the company took the service offline, Ajay Menon, VP of corporate and business development, Zoomin.com, said, “Our core target is wives and mothers who organise photos and create memorabilia. However, many are not comfortable using the Internet and even if they are, they do not prefer to use the credit card online. Access to the Internet from homes is another barrier. Finally, the touch-feel factor is very powerful in India. That is the reason we have decided to opt for offline retail.”

ZoomIn studios are located in Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Kolkata and Chennai. At these studios, visitors can purchase the same range of print products which are available online. The studios typically record 50-200 footfalls on weekdays.

The company is also exploring ways to work with neighbourhood photo studios to leverage ZoomIn services. Some of these studios have shown interest and are conducive to becoming ZoomIn resellers, said Menon.

Vishal Retail founder to launch new 'V2' stores in 2-3 months

NEW DELHI: After selling off stores and assets of debt-ridden Vishal Retail, the company's founder R C Agarwal today said he is ready to make a come back in the retail space with a chain of stores under the 'V2' brand within the next 2-3 months.

In an e-mailed interview, Agarwal told PTI that his new venture will be rolled out under the already publicly listed, Vishal Retail Ltd, with an initial investment of up to Rs 8 crore.

"The name of the brand is V2...It will be done under Vishal Retail Ltd, a listed company," Agarwal said.

In March this year, Vishal Retail Ltd sold off the wholesale and franchise business to private equity firm TPG and the retail undertaking to Chennai-based Shriram Group for a total consideration of Rs 70 crore.

Source : The Economic Times

The transaction also included rights to all trademarks and intellectual property for brands like Vishal, Vishal Retail, Vishal Megamart and Vishal Fashion Mart.

Consequently, Agarwal has chosen a different brand for his new retail venture.

Asked by when he would kick off operations of the new venture, he said it will happen "within 2-3 months".

On the planned investment, he said: "Initial investment will be in the range of (Rs) 7 to (Rs) 8 crore."

As per the plan, Agarwal is looking to set up five hypermarkets to begin with in Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, UP and Jharkhand.

At the time of selling the assets and stores of Vishal Retail, Agarwal had stated that he was preparing a blueprint for a new business and was confident of a 'formidable come back in no time'.

He had founded Vishal Retail a decade back and the brand became a popular name in the country in the discount retail segment.

In 2009, however, Vishal Retail got into financial trouble and piled up around Rs 730 crore in debt and was forced into a corporate debt restructuring (CDR) programme.

Vishal Retail's scrips were trading at Rs 29.90 per share, down 1.16 per cent on the Bombay Stock Exchange.