India Retail News.

Sequoia Capital India has funded upcoming retailer Cotton Country to the tune of Rs 120 crore. The company plans to utilize the funds for introducing premium brands such as French Republic, Denim garments, entering the lucrative Womens and Kids wear segment.

The company will make its retail brands available across atleast 1,000 outlets in India by the end of 2010. Cotton Country has just 4 self owned shops and the rest 450+ are operated by franchisees and multi-brand showrooms. Mr. Sahni, VP of Cotton Country said,

We will authorize about 700 franchisees this fiscal and the turnover is expected to touch Rs 300 crore from Rs 170 crore. We are in the final stages of authorizing two outlets in Dubai to sell our brands. We have also understood that franchising is the best business model for our business.

Cotton Country shirts are priced upwards of Rs 299 and suits at Rs 2,200. Since it is part of Nahar Industrial group with presence in texiles, the company is able to offer such massive discounts.

Gitanjali Gems has launched new line of contemporary gold jewelery under the brand name Rivaaz.

Riwaaz is specially targeted at entry level shoppers and pricing is done keeping this point in mind. The range starts from Rs 2,000 to Rs 12,000. Riwaaz is a collection of 18K gold jewelery with Cubic Zirconia in it.

Cubic Zirconia is an artificial stone with look and feel of Diamond but available at mere 1/10th the cost of original Diamonds.

The Indian business houses didn't take it long to recognize the potential Rural India offers especially in small and day-to-day items / products. Guardian Lifecare has launched Aushadhi brand outlets to cater to the needs of Rural and Semi-Urban areas.

Mr Ashutosh Garg, MD of Aushadhi said,

For Guardian, our tag line is 100% reliablity while Aushadhi says "sau pratishat bahrosa" and if Guardian outlets sell Dove soaps, Aushadhi stores sell Lifebuoy.

Aushadhi outlets are small 200-250 sft in size. The first one is operational in Khairthal [between Delhi and Jaipur]. The company plans to have atleast 50 within the next 2 years.

Mr. Harish Bijoor, leading brand consultant in India said,

Retail organized pharmacies will have to provide a one-stop-shopping experience to rural consumers in order to make their rural presence a success. The companies need to pay attention to rural consumer behavior.

Medplus another pharma chain has over 30 outlets in tier-II cities and plans to expand its presence to tier-III cities. Apollo Phramacy has tied up with Godrej Agrovert for its rural pharmacy chain under the brand name Apollo Adhaar Pharmacy.

The mobile online and offline retailing space is only getting hotter, whether its high end or low end handset, doesn't really matter. After Univercell, Hash 10 another mobile retailer from Tamilnadu has unveiled retail ambitions to compete with mBazaar, ConvergeM, MobileNXT etc.

Hash 10 currently has 54 retail points of presence, 10 company owned and 44 operated by franchisees. Mr. Vaidyanathan, CEO of Hash 10 said,

We plan to expand our network to 300 stores in Tamilnadu and 3,000 PAN India. We are also implementing SAP - ERP to help us manage these stores. Each store is expected to contribute Rs 900,000 a month to topline.

Hash 10 stores will store upt0 1,000 pieces at an average price of Rs 3,000. The stores will also sell SIM Cards and recharge coupons. The company plans to pass on the wholesale discount it gets from OEMs to its franchisees and operate at really thin margin of mere 1%. Brand royalties was not disclosed.

The company is inviting franchisees who are able to invest upto Rs 12 Lakh in meerhcnadise and a 250 to 300 sft shop. As a multi-brand retailer it will sell phones of Asus to Nokia, unlike Nokia Priority Dealers who just stock Nokia phones denying consumers a choice.

Reliance Retail has inked a JV with UK based Boots to run its Reliance Health and Wellness chain of Pharmacy stores. Reliance Wellness will be the front end as mandated by FDI in Retail sector. Reliance Retail will also be in the back end learning the process from Boots.

It is likely that the stores will be branded as Boots. [Not sure what will happen to existing ones] The stores will sell from medicine to high-street health and beauty products. They will also be equipped for quick healthcare checkups.

Looks like Mukesh Ambani is finding it easy to negotiate with UK based companies [American retailers, better watch out] since this is the third such agreement after Reliance Marks Spencer and Reliance Noah's Ark Toy Stores.

Americas Snap Fitness is all set to enter India through Mumbai's Gateway of India and mark its presence in Bangalore as well. They plan to setup 500 to 1,000 centers within the next 5 years on PAN India basis.

Mr. Peter Taunton, CEO of Snap Fitness said,

In many clubs facilities like swimming pools and child care are not optimally used. Most users are keen on pure express work-outs using stat-of-art GYM equipments with greater accessibility.

Snap Fitness is opening its first center in Indiranagar, Bangalore / Bengaluru. The best part of the deal is Snap Fitness is offering membership at mere Rs 1,200 / month and members can access any GYM in India or Worldwide. Compare this to the arrogance of Talwakars who refuse to let members in their centers while in different city for business.

Snap Fitness has realized that franchising is the best way to go with and is offering them between Rs 50 Lakh to Rs 1 crore investment with all the support it can back with [ Marketing, Training, etc]