India Retail News.

In an interview, R .Subu of Subhiksha Retail said,

It was a Big year, our 10th year in business. During the year we became the first retailer in India to reach the 1,000 store landmark. We also became leaders in the mobile phone retailing market. It is also a year when we started building on the technology platform to plan for even more scale and size. The biggest milestone has been that we are a PAN India retailer except for presence in the East, which will get covered soon.

R. Subu expects that in 2008 free direct buying from farmers by amending the APMC act will be appreciated.

Mr. Sumant Sinha, CEO of Aditya Birla's More Retail said,

The acquisition of Trinethra, start-up and built-out of our business roll-out of the first "More" supermarket store in Pune and subsequently in Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Delhi and shortly in Kolkata, Jaipur and Punjab. Re-branding of all the Trinethra /Fabmall stores in the south.

Mr. Sinha wishes that unrealistic real estate prices be softened in 2008 and infrastructure be improved for better retailing and performance.

After Malls and Corporate Campuses, Coffee shop chain Barista - now owned and operated by Italian company Lavazza is planning to setup outlets in Star Hotels across India. The photo on your left is being shot in Barista outlet at Hotel Leela Palace, Bangalore.

Rini Dutta, VP of Marketing said,

We are open to tie up with more malls, corporate offices and star hotels. The plan is to have Barista Espresso Bars in reputed and popular star hotels. We also plan to expand in tier-II cities in India.

The Barista chain now consists of 170 Espresso bars and 9 premium creme outlets. The thrust in Tier-II cities comes because of higher disposable income and the passion to live quality life. In most cities it has become a hang-out place for college students and also for guys'n'gals on date. Cafe Coffee Day, Barista's competitor is already present in Tier-II and Tier-III Indian cities.

German Retailer which introduced the concept of Wholesale / B2B / Cash'N'Carry retailing in Bangalore is catching attention of every other retail giant in India. Reliance has already announced its plans for Cash'N'Carry format. Pantaloon Retail India ltd also announced its intentions to setup stores in this format with thousands of crore in investments. Mr. Kishore Biyani said,

We are developing the Cash-N-Carry model with an overseas partner.

You may recollect, earlier this month Pantaloon in joint venture with American office retailer Staples launched there first Future Office store in Bangalore to retail office supplies to small and medium enterprises in India.

Gitanjali Gems has informed us that Gitanjali Lifestyle (GLL), a wholly subsidiary of the company is signing a MoU with Mariella Burani Fashion Group (MBFG) of Italy to form a joint venture in India by way of incorporation of a new company. The proposed new company will be jointly controlled by GLL and MBFG.

The objective of the proposed joint venture is to significantly drive growth of MBFG's brands in emerging markets, particularly the Mariella Burani, Baldinini, Rosato, Calgaro and Facco collection in the Far East by capitalising on the expertise contributed by the respective partners. GLL will develop an extensive distribution network which is expected to include 32 monobrand and boutiques and 132 shop in exclusive multi-brands retailers. The company will provide production, marketing, logistics and distribution expertise based on its extensive know-how of the Indian market and its existing retail network. MBFG will contribute its consolidated experience in the design, development and international distribution of Italian lifestyle appered, leather goods and jewellery collections.

MBFG designs, produces and distributes world wide a diversified and complementary range of luxury apparel, footwear, leather accessory and jewellery collections under its own brands and under license for prestigious international designers. MBFG founded in 1960 by Walter Burani, Chairman & CEO of the Group and listed in the STAR segment of the Italian stock exchange since July 2000, is today international recognized public company with an established position in the accessible luxury goods market. MBFG manager to provide top quality luxury goods at accessible prices by capitalising on the strength and flexibility provided by Italy's industrial districts, world renown for their excellence in the development of luxury products

Dubai based Landmark group promoted, LMG Brands is planning to enter the retail market with Hypermarket sized stores in India. The group which operates international brands such as Springfield, Kappa, Bossini, Josef Seibel and Vincci is looking at launching large size retail formats.

Mr. Madappa, VP Retail of LMG Brands said,

We are looking at having large format stores in India but are still working on the nature of the format and the segment it will cater to. Getting the right kind of retail space in the right environment is critical for large sized retail formats. We have a tie up with New Look and nothing will stop us from bringing in the future if it fits in with our plans in India.

LMG brands has already launched its Springfield outlet in Bangalore and is now planning for an exclusive womens wear line of Springfield next year. Springfield is a casual wear brand from Spain. LMG plans to open 20-25 Springfield outlets in the next 12 months. Bossini is LMG's most popular brand in India.

Italian fashion brands are hitting on prospective World's richest man and projected India's largest retailer - Mukesh Ambani. Reliance Retail's subsidiary, Reliance Brands is all set to bring home the Italian fashion Sixty Group and introduce brands like Miss Sixty, Energie, Killah and Murphy & Nye.

It is said that Renato Rossi-led design company is expected to have a 51% stake in the venture while Reliance will hold 49%. The JV is likely to open 56 exclusive high end stores in 3 years and will be mostly company operated. Mr. Darshan Mehta is likely to head this venture for Reliance Retail.

Sixty group is a $900 million designer brand with presence in 100 countries. [Left you can see a model for Miss Sixty on the ramp IN NY City Fashion Show]

Indian Fashion design industry is likely to touch Rs 750 crore by 2012. It accounts for just 0.2% of the international industry's net worth. Indian designer wear market commands a category engagement of 66% for male customers and 58% for female customers. The category engagement in western designer wear is 5%.

To cash in on this boom, leading Indian designers have tied up with various retailers in India. Raghavendra Rathore has tied up with Shopper's Stop. Anita Dongre with Pantaloon Retail India Ltd.
Rohit Bal with Metro Shoes and Linen Club. Sabyasachi Mukherjee with lethargic Bombay Dyeing group. Manish Arora with Reebok India. After these tie-ups they are now eyeing the established brands and private labels in Lifestyle segment.

We had some pretty good launches this week. Sanjay Malhotra unveiled his fall winter collection a bit late this year though. The collection includes corsets, skirts, suits, and sarees in colours or ivory, gold, black and brown. Th starting price for this designer collection is Rs 4,000 [$100].

Wills Lifestyle launched new inter collection in shades of blue, fuchsia, soft green and lavender. The range includes tees, knits, cargos, shorts, skirts, minis and capris all priced between Rs 1095 and Rs 9999.

L'EAU d'lssey launched "Intense" for men. It has various variation like citrus, woody and light springs forth and is priced at Rs 2,350 for 75 ml and Rs 3,400 for 125 ml.

Da Milano unveiled its collection of stylish leather handbags, luggage, portfolios and accessories. It is priced at Rs 3,500 onwards and is only available at Da Milano outlets.

Cure & Care health and wellness chain from Karnataka based Manipal group has announced two separate tie ups with Aditya Birla's Departmental stores and Jubilant Malls. This will be in addition to Cue & Care's 50 standalone health centers. Jubilant plans to setup 40 malls on PAN India basis while Birla's will open more departmental stores under the brand name "More". As per the agreement Jubilant will only get rentals from Cure & Care while Birla's will get a cut from Cure & Care's revenue.

Cure & Care COO, Somnath Das said,

We are still a nascent company in this space and it is important for us to tie up with large players to expand our operations rapidly. About 60% of the store's revenues will come from services, while the remaining 40% will be from product sales.

Cure & Care was in talks with the Pantaloon group but with the latter's ambitious expansion plan in setting up it's own chain made the talks collapse.

Rising Economy, Rising Stock Markets and Rising prices of retail space in Malls. OmRetail conducted a survey to find the prevailing rentals at major malls in India and here is an excerpt of findings.

DLF's Emporio - Luxury Mall located in South Delhi is the most expensive mall in India for retailers. The ground floor rents out at at Rs 900. Select Citywalk, once again in Delhi is the second most expensive with rentals as high as Rs 700.

In Mumbai we found that Phoenix Mall and Inorbit Mall [Picture above] as the most expensive to afford with rentals ranging between Rs 650 to Rs 500. Coming to the retail city of Bangalore, UB City's The Collection retails at Rs 600 while the Orion Mall commands Rs 560.

Kolkatta's City Centre Mall and Forum Mall are quite reasonable compared to the above places with rentals in the range of Rs 300 to Rs 400. Chandigrah's City Emporio has a rental of Rs 420. Pune's Magum Mall retail space enjoys rentals in-line with Kolkatta at Rs 300-Rs 350. Chennai is the cheapest metro with its City Centre mall having just Rs 160-Rs 200 rental.

Lucknow's Fun Republic, Ahmedabad's Alfa 1 Mall and Hyderabad's GVK1 Mall have rentals between Rs 180-Rs200. All rentals per sft, per month. With such high rentals in place, mall managers are under tremendous pressures to increase foot fall to please retailers.