Basmati major Amira Foods (India) Ltd has tied up with the Dubai-based retail chain, Choitram Retails for distribution of its products in West Asia, as part of a Rs250cr investment strategy to establish a brand-driven global footprint. The tie-up is aimed at capturing more than quarter of the 2,000 metric tons branded rice market in Dubai and making it the center for the region such as the UAE market where Amira has launched its top end basmati brands. Dubai is also a crucial gateway for re- export to Iran, a key basmati destination, especially in non-branded segment. Close to 80% of basmati rice consumption is in W Asia. Company GMD Karan A Chanana reportedly said, “We want to capture 20-25% market share in every geography within the first 18 months, not just in basmati but also in high-end aromatic varieties such as Thai Jasmine. Our ad spend in each region will be 10-15% of the revenue earned. A key part of the strategy is to tieup with top notch distribution partners.” Amira has already invested Rs100cr in plant and machinery and has a working capital of around Rs150cr. It expects a gestation period of 3 years to see incremental profitability. Amira has a wholly- owned subsidiary in the US and is targeting 25-30% of the total Indian basmati sales through retail chains such as Jetro Cash & Carry Enterprises and Costco Wholesale Corp.

The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) is making a strong pitch for foreign investment in multi brand retail and will come up with detailed feedback on a discussion paper on it, which was unveiled by the department of industrial policy and promotion on whether India should open the sensitive sector for foreign investors. In a letter to minister of commerce and industry Anand Sharma, FICCI president Rajan Bharti Mittal said, “Through a series of measures, the government has made the foreign investment regime attractive for India to receive significant inflows of foreign direct investment (FDI).”

Blue Clothing Company, which is the exclusive franchisee for Italian brands such as Versace and Sisley has major plans for airport retail and has already launched a standalone Versace store in Delhi’s newly inaugurated T3 terminal. Abhay Gupta, executive director, Blue Clothing Company said, “We are going aggressive on the airport retailing segment since it will allow us a wider brand presence.” The privately-held company plans to retail more luxury brands, including Cadini, Corneliani and Sisley, at the airports and expects airport retail stores to contribute about 20% to its total revenues in next three years. Promoted by Dinesh Sehgal, the company plans to double its revenue to Rs200cr by next year. It is also set to launch three Turkish apparel brands Tween, ADV and Damat, by October, and plans to launch five stores each for the three brands.

Indiabulls Infraestate, which had put in the winning bid of Rs474cr for the Poddar Mills property of NTC in Mumbai last week, has for the second time, claimed another South Mumbai property put on e-auction by the National Textile Corporation (NTC). On the final day of the three-day process on Friday, Indiabulls bid Rs1,505cr for the 8.39acre Bharat Textiles Mills' Worli land that had a reserve price of Rs750cr. Indiabulls will pay at the rate of Rs179.38cr/acre. Lodha Structure Developers came a close second bidding Rs1,503cr, while Peninsula Real Estate Management Pvt Ltd finished third at Rs1,409cr. DB View Infracon Pvt Ltd, Ahimsa Realtors Pvt Ltd, Perspective Realty Pvt Ltd and Videocon Realty and Infrastructure Ltd has also been in the race. K. Ramachandran Pillai, Chairman, NTC, said the biggest take-away from the two successive exercises was that e-auction represented the best form of price discovery mechanism for land property. NTC intends putting two smaller properties in Bangalore and Indore under e-auction within the next 15 days, he added. A press release from the Textiles Ministry said Rs1,979cr has been added to its kitty through the e-auction of NTC properties to finance the on-going modernisation drive. The process of e-auction was conducted by e-Procurement Technologies Ltd, Ahmedabad. The Textiles Minister, Dayanidhi Maran, had formally launched the e-auction in the public sector on July 29 to sell the Poddar Mills property.

Big Bazaar, in keeping with its strategy of utilizing all festivals to lure in the customer, has announced that its five-day Independence Day sale has done ‘quite well' across all its formats. As per sourced, on the last day of the sale, (August 15), the two formats, Big Bazaar and Food Bazaar, recorded sales of over Rs100cr. Big Bazaar expected a 20% hike in Mahabachat sales over the same period last year and closed with sales of Rs300-400cr. This is the fifth edition of ‘Mahabachat', a five-day annual shopping event across 210 stores of Big Bazaar and Food Bazaar.

Bharti WalMart Pvt Ltd has opened its third wholesale store in the country. The latest Best Price Modern Whole sale store was rolled out in Jalandhar, the third city in Punjab where Bharti WalMart has its cash-and-carry stores. Bharti WalMart made its debut in May 2009 by opening its first store in Amritsar. The firm plans 1015 wholesale stores in the next three years.

The luxury arm of fashion retailer Genesis Colors has plans to take Burberry deeper into India by opening stores in metros as well as tier I and II towns. Jyoti Narula, Managing Director, Genesis Colors reportedly said, "There are three stores that are already operational in Mumbai and Hyderabad. The joint venture will help in establishing the stores in both large and small towns pan-India." Genesis Colors entered into the JV with Burberry last year. Before that, Burberry formerly had a franchisee agreement with Mumbai-based Media Star, which was terminated after the company decided to forge a joint venture with Genesis Colors. The Sequoia-SVB Capital-Mayfield backed Genesis Colors also owns designer labels such as Satya Paul, Deepika Gehani, Shobhaa De and Bwitch among others. It also has a licensing and distributing arrangement with Tie Rack and represents global luxury brands such as Kenzo, Just Cavalli and Jimmy Choo among others in India.

Mark Ashman has been appointed by K Raheja Corp as CEO of Hypercity Retail (India), a leading hypermarket company of India. Ashman was previously CEO of Marks & Spencer Reliance India and was instrumental in the rollout of Marks & Spencer’s retail strategy in India. He will replace Andrew Levermore. B.S Nagesh, Vice Chairman of Hypercity Retail (I) Ltd. said, “I am delighted to welcome Mark Ashman to our leadership team. His vast retail experience and understanding of Indian consumer will enable Hypercity to remain a leading hypermarket company in India. Mark is joining us at an exciting time as we are expanding into different parts of the country to keep pace with the needs of today’s consumer”.

Dabur International Ltd, the overseas subsidiary of Dabur India Ltd has acquired 100% stake in three firms of Hobi Kozemtik Group, a Turkish personal care products company, for $69mil. Hobi Kozmetik is a market leader in the hair gel category with 35 per cent market share and its products are sold across 35 countries, including West Asia and North Africa. The Group’s three firms are Hobi Kozmetik, Zeki Plastik and Ra Pazarlama. The transaction for the acquisition is likely to be completed by the third quarter of the 2010-11 financial year. Hobi Kozmetik is a market leader in the hair gel category with 35% market share and its products are sold across 35 countries, including West Asia and North Africa. Anand Burman, Chairman, Dabur India Ltd said, “The acquisition of Hobi Kozmetik is in line with Dabur's strategy to aggressively expand its scale of operations and strengthen its presence in the fast-moving consumer goods space across the globe. The acquisition is an important step towards further consolidating and expanding our already substantial presence in the West Asia and North Africa region.” The Company has reported a 20.5% growth in consolidated net profit for the quarter ended June 30, 2010, whereas net profit stood at Rs107.39cr as against `89.09cr in the corresponding quarter last year. Consolidated net sales also showed a growth of 19.5%.

Kishore Biyani’s Future Group has launched the new commodity brand Ektaa, under which, the company will roll out rice, spices, cereals, flour, pickles, regional snacks, and other products in a phased manner. Ashni Biyani, director, Future Ideas, Future Group said, “The idea of creating ‘Ektaa' as a brand is to bring all communities together and celebrate the diverse culinary tastes of India. While there are food products and brands that cater to the tastes of each Indian community, we found that most of these are limited to the local or native market. So, even if you are Maharashtrian or a Bengali living in Delhi, you will still find your preferred food items at the local Food Bazaar,” Devendra Chawla, head private brands, Future Group revealed that the products would be sourced from the group company Future Agrovet and will have premium pricing. The first product to be launched will be popular variants of rice from different States of India. ‘Ektaa' branded rice would be available in five variants – Red Matta, Sona Masoori, Govind Bhog, Ambe Mohar and Basmati, which will be available in one kg and five kg packs. No information was available about the initial scale of the venture. Future Agrovet will enter into sourcing tie-ups with millers in various areas. Ektaa products will be available in all Big Bazar, Food Bazar and Aadhaar outlets across the country, as well as other traditional retail format routes. Future Group's private label contributes as much as 20 per cent to the total turnover. The company has developed private brands in toothpaste, diapers, cereals and soups among others.

Prem Durai Exports Private Limited, the export arm of PGC Industries and Group, Tirupur, has acquired a controlling stake in Swiss leisurewear Switcher Holdings, to which it has been a supplier for over twenty years. Switcher Holdings owns brands such as Switcher, Respect and Whale. D. Prem, Chairman, PGC Industries and Group, said in a press statement that the new development would benefit both parties. It would enable PGC to gain a strong foothold in European markets such as Germany, Switzerland and Austria and Switcher Group would gain from lower costs in various activities such as warehousing, IT, logistics, product design and development. Aadith D. Vikram, Vice-Chairman and Managing Director of the company, said that as Switcher was a well-known player with operations in Germany, France, Austria, Portugal and other European markets, the move would increase its client base substantially.

Yum! Brands, the owner of Pizza Hut, KFC and Taco Bell restaurant chains, has big plans in India, where it has already invested $100mil in restaurant development and plans to invest additional $120mil over the next five years. The Company is expecting to get profitable by 2011 and aiming at earning a profit of $100mil in India by 2015. Yum! Brands opened their first Taco Bell outlet in March, and have plans for 1,000 outlets by 2015. Currently, there are more than 70 KFC and 160 Pizza Hut restaurants in India. Yum! is looking to further strengthen its position in India and China, as it expects 60% of its earnings to come from emerging markets by 2015. Tim Jerzyk, Senior Vice President for Investor Relations at Yum! Brands said, "Yum! India, by far, we see over the next 10 years, being another great opportunity for us. Yum! is poised to capitalise on these opportunities and build a youthful brand to appeal to the young population in India.” Jerzyk added, "The early signs for Taco Bell are good. We are very optimistic and excited about the potential for Taco Bell."

As reported in ET, the India-based Landmark Group is ready to post the first profit for its Lifestyle International subsidiary after ten years of operations. Lifestyle posted turnover of `1,070cr last fiscal and according to Kabir Lumba, Managing Director at Lifestyle International, this figure is expected to grow by 60% in the current year as a result of improving consumer sentiment and double digit growth across all categories. Lumba said, “Lifestyle has been profitable for a while, but our other formats were in investment mode. This year, for the first time, we will achieve profitability at a group level.” Lifestyle International operates its flagship Lifestyle department store as well as furniture and home supplies store Home Centre and fashion store Splash.

HyperCity Retail (India) Ltd is in plans to set-up 10 more malls by next year and will see an investment of about Rs200cr. The company, which now manages seven malls, will add four more malls by the year-end including one in Bhopal in October, followed by Ahmedabad, Ludhiana and Pune. Ashutosh Chakradeo, Head-Buying, Merchandising and Supply Chain, HyperCity Retail, said that the investments made during the slowdown have helped add new stores and step up business. “The company closed last fiscal with total revenues of Rs 310 crore and expects to log revenues of about Rs 700 crore as the store number goes up to 11. Three stores have logged a turnover of over Rs 100 crore each during the year, including the store at Malad in Mumbai and Bangalore and Hyderabad. Significantly, the Hyderabad store, which will complete a year of operations later this month, has achieved this,” he said. Hyderabad and Pune will have three more malls each by next year along with centers in tier-II cities. Chakradeo explained that large stores cater to a catchment of about 5 km, which is why they decided to set up more stores in Hyderabad and Pune to serve the local area.

Pantaloon, which is a subsidiary of Pantaloon Retail (India) Limited, has reported a 40-50% growth in sales over the past 12-15 weeks, with the average stock cycle getting shorter by a few weeks. The group’s ‘seamless’ malls are seeing a 25-30% increase in walk-ins compared to the same period last year. The reason for this being the increased activities in the job market and wage hikes in April, which resulted in more shopping. Pantaloon is now targeting revenues of `1,500cr for this FY, which is nearly 60% more from last year’s `900cr. Vishnu Prasad, CEO of Central and Brand Factory said the retail chain expects to add eight more outlets in the next 12 months, with an investment of `40cr per store. The total Pantaloon stores would add up to 20 post expansion.

As per a spokesperson of Vimal, the flagship textile brand of Mukesh Ambani led Reliance Industries, the Company is in plans to add 38 stores to its retail network in this fiscal. Anand Prakash, RIL President (Textile Division) reportedly said, “We have 380 stores in the country and plan to increase this by at least 10 per cent in FY 2010-11.” He added that the Company would continue to support franchisees to enhance the Vimal brand. However, no details about the investment planned for the expansion were given out.

The partnership between the world’s largest retailer Wal-Mart Stores Inc and billionaire Sunil Bharti Mittal’s Bharti group may be subject to restructuring if the controversial new rule governing wholesale trade is implemented by the government. The new rule on wholesale trading, introduced by the government in April, restrains transactions between group companies, wherein a wholesale trading company cannot sell more than 25% of its sales to a group company and that amount should also be only for internal use. Raj Jain, Bharti Wal-Mart CEO, said that the clarification from the government has been sought, failing which the changes may be necessary in the corporate structure. Bharti Walmart Private Ltd is an equal equity JV between Wal-Mart and Bharti group, which runs a cash and carry or wholesale retail store, in Amritsar and is in the process of opening two more such outlets. This company sells merchandise to Bharti unit Bharti Retail, which operates under the Easyday banner. Bharti Enterprises vice-chairman Rajan Mittal was optimistic that the government will change the policy that was quite irrational according to him. The intention behind the proposed curbs in wholesale trade is to disallow companies from using the liberalised wholesale trading route to operate in the restricted retail segment. The Department Of Economic Affairs, an arm of the finance ministry, had laid down the need for such restriction in its comments to the draft guidelines for FDI in wholesale trade.

Feeling confident enough to open a controversial subject, the Government has opened up a debate on permitting FDI in multi-brand retailing. This has been done through a discussion paper released by the Department of Industrial Planning and Policy (DIPP) on the 6th July. If implemented, the reform would help international retailers such as Walmart, Carrefour and many others who are keen to land on Indian shores. The move will for sure be opposed by the strong small trader lobby and the political opposition. It is likely to be opposed within elements of the UPA as well. The Government has suggested that the reform could be implemented in a calibrated manner. This could include restrictions and limitations to those investing. The paper claims that the benefits include investment in back-end logistics and better prices for the farmer.

The upcoming Pearls Delhi Couture Week will have Swarovski Elements as Trend Partner, the association that will immediately take the glamour quotient a few notches up. Guests at Pearls Delhi Couture Week will be greeted with an illustrious venue sparkling with couture installations made with nine dynamic art forms of couture lighting installations made with Swarovski Elements designed by Sumant Jayakrishnan. From the entrance to the interiors, the venue will represent how crystal embodies everything couture and vice versa. The focal installation that will grace the central area around the two main show areas is a dramatic and distinguished 20 feet tall cascading chandelier made with Swarovski Elements. Eight other creative installations will spread across the venue showcasing new possibilities of expression in art and décor. Designers Gaurav Gupta, Manav Gangwani, Rohit Bal, Suneet Varma, JJ Valaya and Varun Bahl are partners who are working closely with the brand for this Couture Week. Sanjay Sharma, Director, Swarovski Elements, Swarovski India Pvt. Ltd said, “Crystal and couture are partnerships that surprise, scintillate and inspire a whole new world of possibilities. We are confident that this coming week Swarovski Elements as trend partners will unfold all this and more.” Sunil Sethi, President, FDCI said, “We are happy to have SWAROVSKI ELEMENTS as our Trend Partners. They bring the desired luxurious glamour to our platform of Couture celebration. Their installations on venue will personify how Indian couture revels in a new era marked by traditional yet modern sparkling sensuality.”

Marks and Spencer Reliance India Pvt. Ltd, a JV between UK retailer Marks and Spencer Plc (M&S) and Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Ltd's subsidiary Reliance Retail Ltd, plans to take the store count to more than 50 from 17 in the next three years, with the new stores being larger, between 15,000 sqft – 35,000 sqft. Referring to a recent McKinsey report that said that said India is to become the world's fifth largest consumer market by 2025, Nandini Sethuraman, head of marking M&S Reliance India said, “Our contribution to international operations is small today, but this can change within a matter of few years and everyone realizes that. We are seeing a growth of 25-30% as we add new categories, sell more volumes and add new stores.“ M&S has been in the country since 2001, first as a franchise run by Planet Retail Holdings Pvt Ltd, until it entered the JV with Reliance Retail in April 2008, which is when it set up a sourcing base in India. Currently M&S sources 40% of the goods locally and for categories such as menswear, it is up to 70%. Sethuraman said that the objective was to take the sourcing to 70% all around. Post the JV in 2008, M&S has expanded its range to include bath and body toiletries, home accessories, footwear, swimwear and kidswear. It recently tested luggage but is yet to decide on availability and pricing. “The objective is to create a store experience similar to the international stores,“ said Sethuraman.

Tim Jerzyk, senior vice president for investor relations of Yum Brands Inc, the owner of Pizza Hut, KFC and Taco Bell restaurant chains, said in his presentation in Nantucket, Massachusetts that Yum India expects $100mil in profits by 2015. He said, "Yum India, by far, we see over the next 10 years, being another great opportunity for us." The company had previously said it hopes to break even by 2011 and be profitable thereafter. It had said last year that it has invested $100 million in restaurant development in India and plans to invest up to $120 million more in the next five years. Yum has over 70 KFCs and 160 Pizza Hut units in India. It recently opened its first Taco Bell outlet in March. The company expects to have a total 1,000 units by 2015. Jerzyk said India's trillion dollar economy, its $64 billion eating-out market and a young population provides tremendous opportunity for Yum to expand its footprint in the country, where it faces competition from McDonald's and Dominos Pizza. In 2006, 30% of Yum's profits came from developing markets and the rest from developed markets. This ratio is slated to change and this year the company expects half of its profit to be generated in emerging markets, Jerzyk said.

Vice-Chairman of Shopper’s Stop Ltd, BS Nagesh revealed the plans to raise Rs300cr through qualified institutional placement (QIP) within the next two quarters, in order to expand the chain further with the addition of 18 new stores and increase its stake in Hypercity Ratail (India) Ltd from the current 19% to 51%. The Company’s board meet is scheduled for Jun30 to decided on this. Hypercity will open four new outlets to take the tally to 11 by March 2011 and 35 stores by 2015. The Shopper’s Stop board has approved the issue of 4 million shares to QIPs. Govind Shrikhande, customer care associate, president and chief executive of Shopper's Stop, met investors in New York and London this month and expects the QIPs to happen within the next two months. The optimism stems from a strong recovery in the retail sector and within Shopper’s Stop, Shrikhande said, “Same store sales in the April-June quarter are higher by 20% from a year ago.“ Renovation plans of the existing stores are also on the anvil.

The debt ridden discount retailer, Vishal Retail Ltd has signed a nonbinding, non-exclusive agreement with private equity firm TPG Inc. In a statement to the BSE, Vishal Retail said that its board had approved the terms of agreement in line with a corporate debt restructuring (CDR) plan approved by its creditors. Without giving much details, RC Agrawal, founder and MD Vishal Retail said, “This is a non-exclusive and non-binding MoU for a period of two months.“ The deal with TPG or other investors will be closed within two-three months to raise funds to cut debt. The retail has a debt burden of Rs730cr owed to such lenders as SBI, HDFC Bank Ltd and ING Vysya Bank Ltd, with which it has entered the CDR scheme. The Delhi high court in mid- May barred the retailer from selling its assets for the next six months after hearing a winding-up petition filed by Singapore's DBS Bank Ltd to recover its dues. DBS Bank is not a part of the CDR plan. Vishal Retail had a loss of Rs414cr in the year ended 31st March after it wrote off inventory worth Rs342cr.

The owners of Easy Day stores, Bharati Retail has plans to double the count of its stores by end 2010, taking the number of its Easy Day supermarkets to 125 from 60 and Easy Day Market hypermarts to 13 from then existing six. Until now Bharti Retail has stayed confined to the regions across Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan and the new store openings will only be in North India. However, as per a company spokesman, the Company has countrywide plans in another five years with an investment of $2.5bil to add about 10 mil sqft of retail space. Bharati Retail had signed an equal JV with Wal-Mart in 2007, with an eye on India’s $375bil retail market that is growing at an impressive 13-14% annually, with the organized sector comprising a meager 10% at $30mil. Raj Jain, MD and CEO of Bharti Wal-Mart has credited the softening of real-estate prices and positive response from the two partners for acceleration in expansion plans. In the current buoyant season, the other organized retail players in the country like Germany’s Metro Cash & Carry, Khet-Se Agriproduce India, a JV of Tata Chemicals and Ireland's Total Produce Plc, RPG Group’s Spencer’s Retail are all ready with fresh expansion plans.

Vishal Retail, which finally saw robust sales in the last two months, is planning to seek relief from the Delhi High Court from an order that was passed on May 11 on a petition filed by Vishal's Singapore-based creditor DBS Bank, which prohibits it from selling its assets before November 25. Vishal Retail is hopeful of making a sale of nearly Rs1,800cr this fiscal.

The debt ridden discount retail chain Vishal Retail’s filing at the Bombay Stock Exchange reported a 12.38% rise in net loss to Rs128.93cr for the March quarter, which was at Rs114.73cr during the same quarter previous fiscal. However, the retailer registered a growth of 9.34% during the fourth quarter at Rs254.64cr as against Rs232.89cr in the same quarter of 2008-09. The total losses for the fiscal ended 31 March were at Rs414cr compared with Rs94cr a year ago, after writing off inventory worth Rs342cr. Revenue was down 16% to Rs1,105 crore, from Rs1,323 crore a year ago. Founder and managing director R.C. Agarwal attributed the poor performance of his company to the recession and is hopeful of quick recovery.

Cantabil Retail India Ltd, the Delhi-based apparel retailer is keen of tier-1 and 2 cities for expansion of its brand offerings to meet the increased demands of the growing middle class consumers. The Company is planning an IPO by June end to raise Rs105cr. Besides funding its retail expansion, the proceeds from the IPO will be used for debt repayment of Rs60cr and also to set up a manufacturing facility in Bahadurgarh in Haryana. Vijay Bansal, Chairman and Managing Director, Cantabil Retail, said, “Fast developing smaller towns are currently under-served and give scope for our brands to expand. We intend to have at least 20 per cent of our upcoming outlets in tier-2 cities and towns. Further, we also plan to expand to the southern and eastern part of India.” The company designs, manufactures and retails readymade garments and accessories, with 416 retail outlets spread pan-India. The brand, positioned in the mid-market, retails menswear, womenswear and kidswear through its retail outlets Cantabil and La Fanso.

The recent news about the government rethinking its restrictions on foreign investments in cash & carry operations has brought much jubilation to such JV ventures as Bharti-Walmart. An undisclosed source within The Department Of Industrial Policy and Promotion (IDPP) revealed that consultation with concerned ministries would soon be initiated, and that the relaxation could involve a change in the definition of group companies. Only the cases of strong linkages will be included in the definition of group companies and subject to the 25% rule. This will offer some relief to a number of Indian companies, which have formed JVs with foreign firms. The rules so far have upset the plans of business houses such as Sunil Mittal’s Bharti and Walmart and the Tatas and their partners Tesco and Future Group’s efforts to team up with Carrefour for a wholesale trading foray. Some of these ventures were structured in a way that cash & carry companies owned by foreign investors sell a large share of their goods to Indian-owned retailers. The new rules also stipulated that the sale made to group companies should be for their internal use only, besides detailing the persons to whom sales could be made. Akash Gupt, executive director at consulting firm PwC said, “The operational guidelines have severely impacted the centralised procurement models for these companies. The government needs to consider impact of the restrictions on supplies made by wholesale trading companies with FDI to group companies engaged in FDI complaint activities such as manufacturing or wholesale trading.”

DLF confirmed its plans to sell its 97% stake in the luxury hotel group Aman Resorts, which has 23 hotels across 12 countries, as per plans to sell non-core assets to reduced debt. However they are not parting with the Aman Lodhi, the 68 room hotel that was commissioned in 2009. DLF did not provide any reason for retaining Aman Lodhi, which is its first and only city property. It is being speculated that potential buyers may not like the exclusion of such a prime property. The sale is being managed by Goldman Sachs. DLF has also dropped its plan to sell the wind energy business. The group has plans to cut its debt by Rs5,000cr, of which Rs2,700crore will be from the sale of non-core assets and refunds from various government authorities in the next 12-18 months.

The recent auspicious day of Akshaya Tritiya was milked by retailers like Big Bazaar to lure the customer to buy gold and other such valuables, with the resultant sales accruing nearly Rs150cr. Ashni Biyani, director of Future Ideas, a part of the Future Group said that they realise the potential of several such auspicious days (nearly 150) when the Indians tend to spend more and Future Group is actually checking out the Panchang (Hindu almanac) with the help of a special team of experts on Indian mythology and religion set up six months ago. Future Group has always resorted to clever marketing strategies such as ‘Sabse Sasta Din’, to push sales and its TV blitz for Akshaya Tritya was a big success. Biyani guessed that the day must have seen aggregate sales from unorganized and modern retail amounting to Rs7,500cr. Jayendra Salgaonkar, director Sumangal Press Pvt Ltd confirmed that the Biyanis have been meeting with him to understand the depth of Indian rituals and festivals. The Salgaonkars publish ‘Kalnirnay’, the Hindu calendar that is published in seven languages and sells 10 million copies annually. Biyani said, “We are mapping all the communities in India on how they shop and how these calendars work. We understand intuitively, their customs and their rituals.“ Singhal of Technopak recognizes this move by the Biyanis as a ‘very intelligent and creative marketing effort’ and not some community initiative.

In the fourth quarter ended March 2010, DLF has shown a 77% growth in sales to Rs1,994cr and 168% increase in net profit to Rs426cr, as compared to its numbers a year ago. This might have been aided by its low base but improvement in volumes and debt pre-payments has allowed the company to get back to the growth track. However the full years sales of the Company for FY-10 were at Rs7421cr, nearly 35% below that of FY-09 and nowhere near that of FY-08 which was DLF’s best at Rs14,432cr. There is the concern that a higher home loan rate could affect its mid-income project launches and the yet to pick-up commercial sector. As a result of improvement in average selling price and volumes, DLF’s operating profit margin for the quarter ended March 2010 rose 46%, as against 14% a year ago. Average selling price for the quarter doubled to Rs4,180/sqft compared with a year ago, when prices had crashed. DLF's strategy of concentrating on mid-income housing, besides focusing on city-centric projects helped improve volumes. For the full year, DLF managed to sell about 85% of its 14-15 million sqft of projects launched, mostly from the residential category. DLF has also managed to tackle its debt in FY-10 and has repaid Rs5,600cr of the dues during the quarter, well above the mandatory requirement of Rs3,550cr. Its total debt-equity ratio at 0.53 though, did not see much decline as a result of consolidation of its group company which holds all the leased assets of the group. While the full benefit of this merger on the earnings would be felt from the June quarter, the net-worth as of March 2010, increased by Rs5,272cr, merely on account of the merger, providing some indication of the revenue potential from this merged entity. Revenue from leased assets was Rs970cr in FY-09.

Lotto Sport Italia SpA and Sports Lifestyle Pvt ltd are firming their association of past three years by extending it for another fifteen years. The agreement was first signed in July 2007. Starting January 2011, the licensing contract between the two companies has been extended for another fifteen years. This was in keeping with development strategies of Lotto Sport Italia in key emerging foreign markets. Lalit Kishore, Founder and Managing Director of Sports Lifestyle Pvt Ltd, said, “This is possibly the longest ever deal signed by any international brand in India, thus indicating the confidence and belief Lotto Sport Italia has in the Indian market, along with the satisfaction of the strategy, execution and strength that we demonstrated through the past two years of our working relationship. Lotto was the first and only international sports brand available on local territory until the early 1990s, and has managed to still carry the maximum consumer recall. We are determined to make the Italian brand the most significant sports brand in India.”

Crew B.O.S Products, a Rs350cr exporter of leather and fashion accessories to global brands such as Next PLC, Esprit, Armani Exchange, Zara, Massimo Dutti, Tesco and H&M in Europe and GAP, Banana Republic, Old Navy, Chicos and Fossil in the US, has decided to enter the Indian retail market. Tarun Joshi, director of the Delhi-based firm said that for its retail foray a wholly-owned subsidiary, Crew Republica Retail, will be floated and stores will be opened in metros to sell branded fashion accessories like bags, leather shoes and belts. The exclusive shops will be set up in Mumbai, Delhi, and Bangalore with an investment of around Rs80cr. He did not reveal the details of financing. Joshi spoke about his strategy, “The idea is to establish already popular name in the international market in to a global brand. We would leverage our expertise in manufacturing products for most of the renowned global brands.” According to Ace Global, an international business consultancy and market research firm, the Indian fashion accessories market is pegged at nearly Rs2,000cr, of which bags, shoes and belts account for more than 50 %. The apparel accessories market was at Rs910cr in 2008 and is expected to reach Rs1,200cr in 2012.

The US retailers saw a steady increase in sales with increased consumer spending for seven months straight until April. Purchase in April rose by 0.2%, the highest since 1999. Bloomberg News surveyed 60 economists who reported that they see this as a sign of recovery. With the employer becoming more confident of a steady rise in sale, an increase in payroll is imminent, resulting in consumer spending. The Electronics stores may have led retailers last month as Apple Inc sold at least 1 million iPads. Dean Maki,chief US economist at Barclays Capital in New York said, “Retail sales are picking up because of income growth. Consumption is going to be growing at a firm pace through the end of the year.We are in a sustainable recovery now.” Cupertino, California-based Apple store said it sold out of all three versions of the iPad 3G,which went on sale two weeks ago at its retail stores in 13 US cities.

Bata India Limited, India’s largest retail shoe brand unveiled its new Sporty collection for school children on May 17, 2010, to coincide with the start of the holiday season. In keeping with their tradition, the new sporty collection is designed to ensure consistency in finish and quality. The ongoing Bata’s campaign for the children’s range, based on the theme “School or Play, Bata wins the day” is targeted to highlight these points. The sporty range incorporates classic designs, styles such as naughty boy, tennis, ballerina, along with a range of school bags, school socks, shoe polishes, brushes and other new products that have been launched specially keeping in mind the requirements of the school children. The new sporty collection ranges from Rs119 to Rs699.

Jubilant Food Works, the master franchise for Domino’s India, has reported a net profit of Rs33cr ($7.3mil) for the financial year ended 31 March 2010. The total income during the financial year was at Rs420cr ($92.3mil), which is up by 51% from last year. Ajay Kaul, ceo and director said that the company planned to open 70 outlets in the new financial year, with an investment of nearly Rs60cr ($13.1mil). Kaul said: “We opened around 10 stores during the March quarter, which raised our store count to 65. Product innovations, such as Choco Lava cake, during the end of the September quarter and its successful roll out in the March quarter have boosted revenues from existing stores. We are looking at getting into new distribution areas, such as railways and metro stations, and are in talks with the authorities. But it will be difficult to put any timeline to these plans.”

The US quick service restaurant chain Domino’s Pizza is targeting to make India one of its top five global markets in three years, keeping in view the growing Rs1,000cr pizza market in India. Towards this the company is looking at launching an aggressive brand building exercise involving extra spends on marketing and promotional offers. The Company will also expand its food offerings and head out towards the smaller towns in the country.

The Future Group promoted garment retail chain Pantaloon Retail (India) Ltd has got the approval of its board for its plans to demerge its mall management business into a subsidiary and the food business into a step-down subsidiary. The step-down subsidiary is fully FDI (foreign direct investment) compliant. The Company has informed the stock exchanges that one equity share of Rs10 from the subsidiary company will be issued for every 20 shares of Rs2 each in Pantaloon. Besides a favorable order from the Bombay High Court, the approval for the scheme is yet to be got from majority shareholders, creditors of the Pantaloon and its subsidiaries, as well as other regulatory approvals.

Textile and apparel manufacturer S Kumars Nationwide Ltd (SKNL) has entered into 80:20 partnership with Donna Karan International Inc (DKI) through its new company SKNL (UK) Ltd for a worldwide global license in the menswear segment for all territories except Japan. Under the agreement, which is for 14 years - 7 years first and renewable for another 7 years, SKNL will conceptualize, design, manufacture, source, wholesale, franchise and retail the DKNY menswear range. DKI will provide design and support, advertising and marketing, and its existing network of over 100 stores. Nitin Kaliswal, managing director and vice chairman, SKNL revealed that they would invest $25mil in working capital over the next three years and expect revenues of $140mil over the next 3-4 years. DKI owns the Donna Karan New York (DKNY) brand and is a part of Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy (LVMH) group. The news resulted in a 2.61% fall in SKNL’s shares on the BSE.

Infiniti Retail, the Tata group company which runs Croma stroes across the country is planning to increase the number of its nationwide outlets from 47 to 80 by the end of this fiscal and is willing to invest Rs100cr towards this. The news was confirmed by the Infiniti Retail MD and CEO Ajit Joshi. He further added that the expansion target would be subject to availability of retail space. Joshi in answer to the media about investment for each store, replied, “Each store would cost up to Rs3.2cr, which doesn’t include real estate cost as most of our store would come up only on rental premises.”

Carrefour, the French retail giant has plans to continue focusing on emerging markets like India and China and may shut operations in those countries where they are not the leaders. Speaking at a shareholders annual meeting, Lars Olofsson, ceo and board member of Carrefour said that the Company was seeking a partner in India and would reveal the identity in a few months. However the Indian media has already reported speculations about Future Group being the chosen one. Olofsson also expressed the desire to grow in China, but has no significant deal in the pipeline in the near future. He spoke about being cautious in a yet uncertain market and banked on delivering its goal to achieve total cost savings of €3.1bil by 2012. Olofsson explained the compulsion of taking on an Indian partner due to FDI regulations but hoped to open its first cash and carry in India before summer. Inside sources from Future Group have already spoken about the deal being ready to be signed to open stores under Carrefour’s name. Olofsson went on to add that Carrefour was profitable in all countries but operations were impacted in Thailand due to the political crisis but did is hopeful this would improve.

Future Group’s founder and ceo Kishore Biyani is going to merge his real-estate business with the Kolkata based developer Sumit Dabriwala, head of United Credit Belani Group (UCBG), who will be heading the new entity. As per reports, the two have already reached an ‘in-principal agreement’ to merge their property assets and create a ‘FDI-compliant’ real estate firm in six months and the process has already begun. Future Group will have a significant stake in the new company and Dabriwala will take care of the day-to-day management. Sunil Biyani, cousin of Kishore Biyani will join the board of the new merged entity and will work closely with Dabriwala. In preparation to the merger, Pantaloon Retail had decided on 23rd April to separate its real estate and mall management business into a separate subsidiary. As reported in ET, the new real estate firm formed after the merger would have interests in both commercial and residential projects. Dabriwala, who currently has interests in residential projects in Kolkata and its suburbs, as against Future Group’s country wide investments in commercial projects, said, “For the Future Group, its real estate business was too small compared with its other interests; and for us, it was our drive to expand nationally that led to this decision to integrate our businesses.” He added that Future Group’s assets were worth Rs275-300cr, while UCBG’s assets were worth more and he had begun the process of consolidating his real estate assets, which are currently shown on the books of different unlisted companies. Assets held privately by Biyani are also going to be transferred to the merged entity. Biyani and Dabriwala are likely to hold 50% in the merged entity, though it is still not clear about how much they will hold singly.

The Kishore Biyani owned Future Group is at the forefront with plans to launch several e-commerce initiatives in this quarter. Taking note of the increased role of the internet, mobile phones, television and e-technology in general in people’s day to day lives, the retailer had made plans to capitalize on this to sell a range of products via these mediums. Their existing online retail operation, the internet portal Future Ecommerce will launch new initiatives such as SMS short codes, teleshopping, proximity marketing through mobile phones and virtual shopping through manned kiosks in the coming weeks and will compete with other e-commerce portals like eBay.com, Indiatimes.com and Rediff.com, websites of Shoppers Stop and Landmark. Currently, the size of online retailing and teleshopping in India is only a minuscule as compared to the US markets, which recorded $131bil retail e-commerce in a recession hit 2009. Kishore Biyani said that the company is in talks to acquire a small IT company with about 150 personnel to develop and maintain content and websites. Venture capital firms Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Ram Shrirams Sherpalo Ventures together hold 15% stake in the new Future e-commerce business of Kishore Biyani, who revealed plans to discount all goods sold through the digital platform by 5-20%. E-commerce saves on cost by moving directly from warehouse to consumer.

Hypercity, the hypermarket chain owned by the K Raheja group is in plans to open 3-5 malls within this fiscal 2010-11. BS Nagesh, Vice Chairman of the Raheja group’s Shoppers Stop said, “Each mall (Hypercity) will be about 65,000 sq ft.” He also said that more personnel would be hired in FY 2011, taking the headcount of the current 1,200 personnel in Hypercity to 1,800. Total strength of staff in Hypercity and Shoppers’ Stop is 5,000. BS Nagesh said that the capex for Hypercity this fiscal was Rs10cr. The in-principal approval for qualified institutional placement (QIP) of Rs300cr is already in place and will be raised over a time frame of 6-9 months.

Vishal Retail’s corporate debt restructuring (CDR) meeting with lenders held last week remained inconclusive and has been rescheduled for 21st May. The Company with a total debt of Rs736cr (Rs260cr with non-CDR lenders) had opted for CDR last November with six banks joining in. State Bank of India, HDFC Bank and ING Vyasa Bank are a part of the CDR. Singapore’s DBS Bank, which is not part of the CDR, had filed a winding-up petition in Delhi High Court against Vishal Retail to recover the due amount of Rs40cr. Private equity fund Texas Pacific Group has evinced interest in taking over the debt-laden retailer.

The Aditya Birla Ratail Ltd (ABRL) is in plans to increase the count of its retail brand ‘more’ hypermarkets and supermarkets in this fiscal. Thomas Verghese, CEO Aditya Birla Retail revealed plans to open 10 hypermarkets across Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Mumbai and upto 100 supermarkets in Tier-II cities in 2010-11. At present there are 540 supermarkets and six hypermarkets.

Kishore Biyani’s Future Group and Amalgamated Bean Coffee Trading Co headed by VG Siddhartha have entered into multiple partnerships across categories. A formal agreement and a MoU for the partnership has been signed. As part of the agreement, the VG Siddhartha owned Café Coffee Day will develop a private label coffee brand called CCD that will be sold in their own outlets, as well as Future Group’s Big Bazaar and Food Bazaar chains. They are also developing a line of furniture that will be manufactured with timber sourced from their coffee plantation and sold through Future Group’s Home Town chain. As per informed sources, VG Siddhartha is making sizeable investments in the furniture manufacturing facility and already a team from Future Group is co-designing the furniture with the staff at Dark Forest Co, which manufactures and supplies furniture to all the 99 Café Coffee Day outlets across the country and is a closely held family concern of VG Siddhartha. Amalgamated Bean Coffee Trading has coffee plantations across 7,400 acres of its own estates and another 2,500 acres of managed estates. Speaking about the new deal Kishore Biyani, who has been aggressively building his FMCG private label business to increase margins, said, “Our focus is to grow coffee consumption and build strong FMCG brands.”

India's largest footwear retailer, Bata India Ltd, posted a net profit of 39% in the first quarter of the financial year 2010-11.The company continued with its strong growth momentum by posting an impressive 11.2 % growth in Net Profit at Rs1,433.0lacs as against Net Profit of Rs1,033.0lacs in the same period last year. The Net Sales of the Company grew 11.2% at Rs25,915.4lacs as against Net Sales of Rs23,303.2lacs in the same period last year. Marcelo Villagran, Managing Director, Bata India Limited said, “This impressive performance is the result of higher sales and profitability due to the expansion in our retail stores, a fantastic shoe line, increased store productivity, improved inventory management and great customer service. We will continue with our strategy of expansion in different markets by opening new stores and investing in building our brand.” In the Q1, the company opened 25 new Bata stores based on the international format of Bata with a minimum area of 3000sqft, 2 Hush Puppies exclusive stores and 2 Hush Puppies Shop-in-Shops with the Lifestyle department stores and renovated 16 existing stores. The Company also launched its new Spring/Summer Collection in its stores, offering several new trendy designs targeted at the young customers, under its famous brands such as Marie Clair, North Star, Power and Weinbrenner.

Adams, the international kid’s wear brand that was recently acquired by UK based apparel wholesaler XTC Clothing, is ready to open its retail operation in India through a franchise in the next few months. Sharad Madan, MD of XTC Clothing said, “We are keen to build the brand in India and the UK.” The India kid’s wear market is at Rs3,500cr and growing with medium level local brands like Catmoss, Jini & Jony and Lilliput as the main players. Several big brands like Allen Solly, Arrow, Reebok, Puma, Woodland and Marks & Spencer have all set their sight on this segment.

A report compiled by Jones Lang LaSalle Meghraj (JLLM), the leading real estate consultants, said that a surge in demand is likely to see a rise in the property prices in Mumbai across commercial and residential segments. The report said, “Demand for commercial spaces is improving and will continue to do so until the end of this year. This will translate in to large number of transactions, both in terms of leases and outright purchases.” It also said that there will be lot of activity on the residential properties owing to strong demand and the fact that many developers are going for public funding. Pawan Swamy, JLLM Managing Director (Western India) said, “This is good news for the realty sector in the medium to long-term, depending on the pace at which these measures are implemented.”

The magazine Fortune 500 has ranked Wal-Mart Stores Inc as the biggest company, a ranking done on the basis of annual revenue. Oil firm Exxon has lost its top ranking again as in 2007 and slid to second position, having been hit by recession in the US. Wal-Mart pulled in $408.2bil in revenue last year, compared with $275.6bil for Irving, Texas-based Exxon reported a profit of $19.3bill topping Wal-Marts $14.3bill in 2009. Chevron Corp stayed in third place. Interestingly, two banks rose in rankings to be in the top 10, while homebuilders disappeared altogether from the list.

Internet footwear retail portal bigshoebazaar.com is in plans to add in this fiscal, around ten brands including Puma, Woodland and Bata, under its belt.The portal currently provides its integrated customer service, logistics and brand integration by operating online exclusive branded outlets (EBOs) for four brands Florsheim, Lotto, Adidas and Red Tape. Manmohan Agarwal, director bigshoebazaar.com said, “We intend to set up 10 more online EBOs during 2010-11 and this will allow our customers to access all major Indian and global brands through our technology. The portal will provide technology and services to the EBOs and source inventory from its single warehouse in Delhi.” The company has also integrated its system with major online shopping sites like Rediff,e-bay and Indiatimes under a revenue sharing model to promote the footwear segment.

Tesco, the British retail giant is expected to open its first cash and carry operations in India by the end of this year in JV with Tata Group firm Trent. Tesco is upbeat with having reported a annual profit of £3.18bil in the last FY, having annual revenues worth £62.54bil. A Tesco spokesperson is reported to have said, “Our local management team is helping our franchise partner, Trent, to develop its Star Bazaar hypermarket operation. Plans for our wholesale business are also on track with our first cash-and-carry store expected to open towards the end of this year.”

Snowman Frozen Foods Ltd, the Bangalore-based integrated food chain logistics and cold store services provider is seeking to expand its warehouses infrastructure across cities. The Company has already tripled the warehouse space in Chennai, will expand the Bangalore space to same as Chennai’s by September and scale up Mumbai and Delhi within one year. Ravi Kannan, Chief Executive Officer, Snowman Frozen Foods Ltd, reportedly said that apart from the cold storage facility, the company plans to provide fruit and vegetable processing facilities including ripening chambers, cutting, packing and repacking facilities and dry warehouse and ambient temperature space.

Rajeev Bakshi has quit his position as head of Asia-Pacific at PepsiCo Inc and has joined Germany’s Metro Cash & Carry (India) as Vice President and Managing Director Designate. He will take over from 1st June, and from 1st December he will officially become the Managing Director. He will be replacing Sylweriusz Faruga who is moving back to the parent organization in a senior position. Bakshi has previously been with the PE firm ICICI Venture Funds and on the board of the beleaguered Subhiksha Trading Services Ltd.

Yum! Restaurants India is in plans to invest $20mil in India to take the existing count of 74 KFC outlets across 13 cities to 120 by the end of 2010. Unnat Varma, MD Yum! Restaurants revealed that the Company hopes to have 500 KFC outlets by the end of 2015 with an investment of $300mil. Varma said, “Currently, we have a 50:50 revenue share ratio between Pizza Hut and KFC in India.” There are already 143 Pizza Hut outlets across 34 cities and Taco Bell, the third brand of Yum! Restaurants, was launched recently. The Company said that as per research data, the branded eating out category in India is estimated around Rs20bil and growing at an annual rate of 20%.

The DLF group has been in the news for having bagged carbon credits worth Rs40cr for reducing emission of greenhouse gasses. For those wondering, DLF consumes 150 MW power across its different buildings in the country and own 288 MW of green power capacity wind power turbine installations in states such as Gujarat, Karnataka, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu. A Company spokesperson disclosed that the wind power projects in Gujarat and Karnataka have also been registered with Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change as CDM projects and are now eligible for carbon credit.

Marks & Spencer (M&S) has reported a 5.1% increase in like-for-like sales for its Q4 of financial year 2009-10. The UK sales showed an increase of 6.2% and group sales were up by 4.8%. The retailer attributed the improved performance in the food segment to better value and product innovation. Sales growth shot up 48% for the quarter as the ‘Shop Your Way’ multi-channel ordering service was extended to over 300 stores. International sales showed a down swing of 5.9% due to difficult trading conditions in Republic of Ireland and Greece and an adverse impact from currency translation. Sir Stuart Rose, Chairman said: “We have weathered the immediate impact of the recession but remain cautious about the outlook for 2010/11 given the current challenging environment. We hope that after the election there will be greater clarity on economic policy and how this will impact our customers individually. With this will come improving consumer confidence which is so important for our business and the economy as a whole.” The trading statement is the last to be presided over by Sir Stuart Rose. He will be replaced as Chief Executive by former Morrisons boss Marc Bolland in May, but will stay on in a part-time role as Chairman.

Unitech has formed a panel comprising five board members to speed up the demerger of its non-core businesses into a separate entity, so as to focus on its core business of realty. An inside source has revealed that the company plans to hive off its investments in telecom, hotel and special economic zones into a new offshoot. Unitech owns a 33% stake in Uninor,a telecom JV with Norways firm Telenor. The official went on to reveal that all Unitech shareholders will get proportionate shares in the new entity after listing, and the restructuring will help unlock value for them. Consultants Ernst & Young and SR Batliboi & Co as well as legal firm Amarchand & Mangaldas will advise the panel about the restructuring.

Godrej Consumer Products (GCPL) has acquired Indonesia-based Rs600cr Megasari Makmur Group for an estimated Rs1,200cr. The nearly 15 year old Group is a manufacturer and distributor of household products like insecticides (Hit), wet tissues, air-fresheners (Stella), babycare (Mitu) and is the second largest player in Indonesia’s household insecticide market. HSBC was the advisor to the transaction. As per reports, A Mahendran, Director, FMCG Portfolio Cell for the Godrej Group, said, “The funding for the acquisition has been done through a mix of debt and internal accruals.” This is GCPL’s fifth acquisition. It recently bought the Nigerian personal-care company Tura, two hair care brands in South Africa, and the UK-based Keyline brands. More buys are in offing with the group keen on building a global presence. A cross-functional team comprising Godrej and Megasari employees, headed by Naveen Gupta, will help integrate the operations of the two companies. Adi Godrej, Chairman, GCPL, said: “Megasari Group provides us a strong platform to establish a significant foothold in Indonesia, which is among the largest consumer markets in Asia. As an emerging market multinational, this acquisition is an important step in our global 3 by 3 strategy, that is, presence in three continents — Asia, Africa and Latin America — through three core categories — home care, personal wash and hair care.” GCPL has already got shareholder approval to raise up to Rs3,000cr through debt and equity to be used for international acquisition as well as to buy out Sara Lee, already having a 49% stake in Godrej Sara Lee. The global assets of Sara Lee's household insecticide business are also being acquired.

Body Shop International Plc, the UK based skin care product firm has reportedly plans to multiply its India presence by four times over the next three years. Already the Company has slashed the prices of over 600 products by 35% in a bid to increase volume of sales. Jonathan Price, MD The Body Shop International (Asia Pacific) said, “The Indian market is very important for us. It was the fastest growing in the Asia Pacific last year and it will again be the fastest in this year also.”

Coffee Day Resorts Pvt Ltd is using a recent investment of Rs960cr, which came from three PE investors, to double the number of its Café Coffee Day outlets to 2,000. VG Sidharth, Chairman, revealed his plans to buy coffee retail chains in China, the Middle East and Eastern Europe, and also double the number of overseas outlets of Café Coffee Day to 40. The Company is able to scale up faster than the competition and control costs by virtue of owning nearly 10,000acres of coffee plantations that provides 25,000 tons of coffee, leaving the firm to buy the remaining 25,000 tons from the market. The investors, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts India Advisors Pvt Ltd, Standard Chartered Private Equity Ltd and New Silk Route have acquired nearly 25% stake in the Company, which also owns a private equity fund Global Technology Ventures, three resorts in southern India under the Serai brand and Terra Firma Pvt Ltd, a waste management business.

Tata group’s retail arm Trent is to sell through its hypermarket chain Star Bazaar, 58 private label products of its wholesale JV partner Tesco, world’s third largest retailer. Already for one year, as a pilot project Trent has sold ‘value baby diapers’ from Tesco. Other products to be added now are simply organic biscuits and fruit infusions shampoo across 16 categories. All of these value products will be available in all seven hypermarkets of Star Bazaar. Trent is also accessing Tesco’s marketing, stock management, retail information systems, cold-chain infrastructure and front-end services expertise to sharpen itself.

Yum! Brands Inc, the US based fast food brand opened its first Mexican specialty restaurant Taco Bell in Bangalore in India. The Company plans to open nearly 100 outlets of the Taco Bell chain in India by 2015

Future Group, headed by Kishore Biyani, has rolled out a massive expansion plan for its Big Bazaar chain of hypermarts in the East. An investment of over Rs125cr is marked out for the next six months. The number of Big Bazaar outlets is to be doubled from 22 to 40 by October and all outlets will be reoriented to incorporate the new business model on community retailing, Big Bazaar Family Centre. This includes the two existing Big Bazaar stores in Ranchi and Guwahati. The over 10 lakh sq ft Big Bazaar in the East will see the addition of another 6 lakh sq ft as part of the expansion process. Manish Agarwal, Chief of operations Future Value Retail (East), said, “We now want to include products which may not lead to volume sales but will cater to the entire shopping basket of a family.” He also revealed that the real estate for the new stores war already acquired and was under various stages of development. Kolkata’s existing number of seven Big Bazaar stores will see the addition of another seven by October and several newer markets like Patna,Asansol,Agartala,Silchar,Deoghar,Bilaspur,Raniganj,Liluah and Gangtok will be covered under the expansion drive. Post the execution of the current expansion plan, new opportunities for standalone Food Bazaar stores in the East would be explored.

Real Estate firm Unitech sent a notice to the Bombay Stock Exchange to report about the allotment of five crore equity shares of Rs2 each, at a premium of Rs48.75 a share, by Unitech’s Committee of Directors to its promoter group Harsil Projects Pvt Ltd. This takes the stake up from 43.84% to 45%. The notice said, ‘The allottee has exercised the conversion right with respect to five crore warrants upon payment of balance 75 per cent of the issue price (for this tranche) well before the said period of 18 months which falls due on December 28, 2010.’ As per an inside source, the consideration for this tranche of conversion was about Rs190cr. In June 2009, Unitech EGM had approved the issuance of a total of 22.75cr convertible warrants to the promoter firm at Rs50.75 each.

Madura Garments’ premium apparel brand Van Heusen, having show a CAGR of 25% over the past five years, had on target a turnover of Rs380cr in the financial year ended March 31st, 2010 and is upbeat about taking it forward with a 30% increase in turnover to Rs500cr in the next FY 2010-11. It hopes to achieve this by expanding its product range across its sub-brands for youth and women, Van Heusen V and Van Heusen Woman. Besides the recently introduced ‘Van Heusen Heritage’ in the super premium category, an eco range of shirts made from organic cotton is also in the offing. The star performer is Van Heusen’s women’s wear range, which contributes nearly 10% and is growing at 50% year on year. Shital Mehta, COO, Van Heusen predicts that this range will touch 20% in three years. The brand has moved on from being an apparel brand to becoming a lifestyle brand and is including accessories.

Retail major Landmark Group is expecting to grow by 45-50% in the next three years. For the current year, Landmark’s expansion plans include adding 10 Lifestyle stores and one more Home Centre across various cities in the country. The company will close the year with revenues in excess of Rs1,000cr and expects to touch Rs2,500cr by next fiscal. The Group’s brands in India include Lifestyle International, Home Centre, Spar and Max stores, which contribute about 10% to the Company's global revenues at present. Kabir Lumba, Managing Director, Lifestyle International (P) Ltd said “We expect Landmark, with all its brands, to be a $1bil company in India by then.” The company experienced an 18% same store growth in 2009-10.

Future Group’s Kishore Biyani has revealed his plans to turn the newly acquired Shoprite store located in Mulund in Mumbai, into a large format store dedicated mostly to food, including a bakery. Shoprite Holdings Ltd, South Africa's biggest grocery chain, had just one hypermarket in Mumbai and sold multi-brand products in India through a franchisee agreement with Mumbai-based property developer Nirmal Lifestyle. As per information, the Future Group executive did not disclose the price of purchase of Shoprite nor the budget allocation for the redevelopment. Shoprite too did not give any reason why the sale was made to Future Group.

The Kerala Consumerfed has made history of sorts by the success of India’s first floating supermarket ‘Triveni’, which takes modern retailing to a new height as it reaches villages along the backwaters. Triveni is a single deck supermarket offering daily need items, groceries and FMCG goods like home appliances and washing machines etc. It was launched mid last year to cater to the villages around Alappuzha and makes its port of call at various jetties around the town, garnering a business of nearly Rs50,000 per day in this rural outback. Innovating to the need of the local markets is the name of the game that works.

Megamart, the Rs320cr retail chain is introducing the multi-brand consumer reward points program that was pioneered by Loyalty Solutions and Research Ltd and has entered into a tie-up with i-mint, whose loyalty program has over 10million members and 2,500 partners like HPCL, Airtel, makemytrip.com, Music World etc, across 3,000 outlets. Through this tie-up, i-mint members can shop at Megamart, earn reward points and redeem them at any i-mint partner outlet. J. Suresh, CEO Brands and Retail, Arvind (owner of Megamart) said that the Company hoped to leverage this large consumer base of i-mint. Megamart also runs a loyalty program, SmartOne, which has over four lakh members.

Godrej group’s food-retailing format Godrej Nature’s Basket is in plans to open 20 stores across national capital region (NCR), Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad and Chenna, of which all of six will open in the NCR region. The Company already runs eight stores in Mumbai. Mohit Khattar, managing director Godrej Nature's Basket reportedly said, “We recorded a 48% year-on-year growth in 2008 and 80% in 2009. This convinced us about the format.” He also disclosed that the stores would be set up in up-market residential locations and expected to break-even in six months. Openings in malls were ruled out in view of the steady increase in rentals post slump. The chain started out in 2005 as a fruit and veg store and moved on to stocking exotic foods like breads, pastas, meats, wines etc.

February saw the relentless increase in inflation reaching 9.9%, expectedly so with the hike in prices of petrol and diesel that resulted in increase of fuel price index to over 10%. The Budget too added to the woes with rise in excise and duty rates and rise in price of manufactured products by 7.4%. Despite assurances, food inflation stayed at 17.8% but is expected to show a decline gradually over the next few months.

ADA Reliance Group promoted Big Cinemas launched their first hall in Manhattan’s Midtown East in New York, with the focus on the 300,000 strong Indian population in the city. The newly refurbished and renovated location previously housed the ImaginAsia Theatre.

Titan Industries, having clocked 17%growth in revenues in last FY 2008-09 at Rs3,800cr, is anticipating a growth of 21% in the FY 2009-10 at Rs4,600cr, with a 20% growth in the segment of high end watches priced at above Rs5,000. Speaking at the re-launch of the Titan showroom in Taratala in Kolkata, Titan Industries Ltd MD Bhaskar Bhat went on to add that in view of the above data that revealed good value growth, watches at a higher end are being introduced. The watches segment accounted for 30% of the Company’s total turnover while jewellery made up the remaining 70% and contributed 55% to the Company’s bottom line, expected to go up to 60%. Commenting on the changing equation of a predominantly watches brand, he said, “We hold about 65% share in the organised watch market and the margins are also higher as compared with the jewellery.” Titan sold one crore watches this year and expects 10% increase in volume sale next year. He also disclosed plans to venture into such territories as Thailand, Phillipines and South Africa over the next 2-3 years , with a Rs100cr capital expenditure chalked out in FY11. Part of the capex, which will be raised through internal accrual, will be used to add 120-150 stores under various brands. On the anvil for the next fiscal are five large stores of 2,500 sqft for watches, and spending on manufacturing activity and IT infrastructure.

The Aditya Birla Retail group, with More retail chains, is considering offloading 10-15% stake to private equity in an effort to boost its unprofitable retail operations. While currently the Company is funded by debt, it is also seeking a strategic partner, on the lines of Wal-Mart and Tesco, for infusion of fresh equity. However, Thomas Varghese, CEO Aditya Birla Retail was skeptical about such structured deals for back end operations in view of existing FDI regulations that do not permit multi brand retailing in the country. Also being explored are new formats like deep discount and home stores in a bid to look beyond its supermarket and hypermarket models. However, speaking at the launch of its sixth hypermarket in Thane, Varghese said, “The hypermarket model is an easier model to crack due to the supply chain efficiencies and is easy to manage. We intend launching 10 to 12 hypermarkets every year.” Taking advantage of the lowered property prices, the retailer has entered into revenue sharing deals with real estate owners as all their properties are on lease. Besides private labels, the retailer has collaborations with vendors to create special products for its More outlets.

Future Group aims at achieving a turnover of $2bil in the FY 2009-10 and growing it by 50% to $3bil by 2011. The company follows the July-June accounting year. The Future Group owns the country’s biggest listed retailing company Pantaloon Retail and formats such as Big Bazaar and Food Bazaar, the last two accounting for almost 50-52% of the total retail space. Speaking at the inauguration of the Sealdah Commercial Complex, which is a Rs100cr public-private partnership project initiative by the Riddhi Siddhi Mall Management Pvt Ltd (a Future Group and Keventer Group JV) in association with the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority, Kishore Biyani, CEO Future Group said, “We are looking to increase the retail space occupied by our different store chains to about 17mil sqft by 2011, up from 14mil sqft at present.” Built on a G+9 format, the building would house Big Bazaar on five floors. This store is expected to generate revenues of Rs75cr in first year and Rs100cr in second year. Kolkota already has five Big Bazaar stores and five more are to be added by end June.

Pantaloon Retail (India) has announced its plan to merge the consumer durable business of its subsidiary with self. In a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange, Pantaloon has said that the board has approved demerger of consumer durables and home improvement business from Home Solutions Retail (India) Ltd. Following the demerger, the said units would be merged with Pantaloon Retail (India). In another move, the company would acquire the sports retail business from its wholly-owned subsidiary, Winner Sports Ltd. As per the filing, the scheme of arrangement is subject to approval from the shareholders.

The Sunil Mittal promoted Bharti Retail has opened two more ‘easyday Market’ medium format stores in a single day in Ghaziabad and Jaipur, with space areas of 50,000 sqft and 35,000 sqft respectively. This was in keeping with the Company’s growth strategy aimed at becoming a $1bil firm by 2015. A Bharati Retail spokesman revealed that the expansion to new cities was part of the Company’s keenness to tap the growing market for items like food and grocery, electronic goods and apparels in the organised sector. Bharti Retail already operates three other easyday Market stores in Patiala, Ludhiana and Jalandhar.

Skechers USA, the leading fashion footwear brand for the entire family has brought its merchandise to India with the opening of its first standalone store in Mumbai. Plans are on to open five stores in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore in this year. Marvin Bernstein, MD Skechers USA said, "We are a global brand and are reasonably priced. We are confident about growth in the Indian market." The price range for the women’s styles will be from Rs599- 3,799 and Rs599-3,999 for men. Skechers USA is listed on the NY stock exchange and has over 350 stores around the world.

Haldiram Foods India Ltd is in plans to open their popular Indian fast food restaurants in UK this year. Mohanlal Agrawal, Chairman Haldiram’s said, "We have acquired some land and a warehouse in the UK and have applied for statutory approval to open the first restaurant there. It should be operational by end of this year." The Company is also exploring opportunities to open such restaurants in US, Canada, Fiji and Mauritius. Haldiram had opened their snack outlets in London in mid 2008. The firm was in the news recently when Haldiram’s co-owner Prabhu Shankar Agrawal was arrested from Delhi airport for a criminal conspiracy.

Spencer’s Retail is in plans to invest Rs100cr in the coming financial year to open 15 large-format stores, each covering an area of 15-30,000sqft.Vineet Kapila, Chief Executive Officer, Spencer's Retail, clarified last month’s report about talks with a private equity firm to offload 15-30% stake in the company, saying that the company would do it only when the market conditions were right and as of now the company had enough cash to fund its expansion plans. Spencer's sales have been up 20-30% and are expecting a turnover of Rs800cr in FY09-10. Currently there are 275 Spencer’s stores across 50 cities, 36 of these being large format stores. The company has retail footage of 1.1mil sqft.

Historic lifestyle store chain The Bombay Store is seeking to strike out big and expand its base across India from the existing 11 stores in just seven cities. The plan is to focus on mid-size stores of 3,000-4,000 sqft and open 28-30 stores with the infusion of Rs30cr. Six stores are planned for the next financial year to be opened in airports, malls and histreets in cities like Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore and Hyderabad. Stores for the Northern states would be considered after 2011. The Company is hoping for a turnover of Rs30cr, up from Rs24cr in the 2008-09 FY. In 2008, equity amounting to Rs17cr was raised through Fidelity Multitrade and may look for fresh infusion of funds in about 18 months. Asim Dalal, Managing Director, The Bombay Store disclosed that they are on the lookout for a suitable JV with international retailers to explore markets abroad. He added that while the Mumbai stores contributed to 40% of the sales, the tourists were responsible for almost 20% of the average. The Bombay Store was started in 1906 by Lokmanya Tilak as The Bombay Swadeshi Co-operative Store, and is now run and managed by the Dalal family.

Christian Dior, the €18bil French fashion house is opening its first store in Mumbai at the prestigious Taj Mahal Palace & Towers, occupying the 1200 sqft space that was vacated by Fendi. Dior entered India in 2006 with an outlet in Delhi’s Oberoi Hotel, following it up with a 3,500 sqft flagship store in Emporio Mall. Sidney Toledano, president and CEO of the Christian Dior Group had declared his faith in the Indian luxury buyer 14 months ago, stating that ‘India was one of the most promising new markets for luxury brands.’ Incidentally, Dior and Louis Vuitton are neighbours in all three locations in India. Both the French fashion houses are part of the Arnault Group that also controls the €12bil luxury goods conglomerate LVMH Group. The heritage wing of the 105 year old Taj is in great demand by luxury brands which have to get in the queue to get a nod from the consultants Jones Lang LaSalle Meghraj. As per unconfirmed reports, the two spaces vacated by Girard Perregaux (400 sqft) and Burberry’s (1200 sqft, expandable to 2000) are being considered by Paris-based fashion house Hermes, French fashion brand Chanel, US designer Tom Ford and US diamond jeweller Harry Winston.

Last September, Levi Strauss (India) Pvt Ltd launched an instalment plan in a tie up with HDFC Bank and Axis Bank, where people could shop at their store and pay the bill in instalments. Although the initiative raised scepticism initially, the success of the format is seeing other players copying the equated monthly instalment (EMI) scheme. Provogue (India) Ltd has tied up with HDFC Bank Ltd for an interest-free EMI scheme, wherein the HDFC card holder can opt to pay his bill of minimum Rs1500 in three easy instalments. This format is also being considered by such single brand retailers as Marks and Spencer, Reliance Pvt. Ltd and Spykar Lifestyles Pvt Ltd. Multi brand stores like Shopper’s Stop had experimented unsuccessfully with this format on bills of minimum Rs10,000. However they are ready to try it again. Govind Shrikhande, customer care associate, president and chief executive of the retail chain said, "Three years ago, market sentiments were good and interest rates were low. There was not much need felt for EMIs."

As per reports from inside sources, DLF India will exit the 39:61 JV with Prudential Financial Inc to sell mutual funds in India, in view of proposed regulatory changes, wherein it is mandatory for a company to have five years of experience before selling mutual funds, DLF and Prudential had received SEBI’s approval to jointly sell mutual funds in November 2008. An inside source has revealed that the decision is also part of DLF's strategy to focus on its core business of developing real estate. However, DLF’s JV with another unit of Prudential to sell life insurances, is still on track.

Taking into account the increasing cases of fraudulent property registrations and inability to track rogue property dealers, the state government is made it compulsory for all property dealers, property consultants and estate agents to obtain a licence from the district administration or face a penalty amounting to sealing of their offices, monetary fine and imprisonment. As per the Act, a person, company or society that gets a deal finalised for the sale, purchase, exchange, letting or taking on lease any immovable property and gets commission as remuneration will be considered a property dealer, property consultant or estate agent. As per District Revenue Officer PD Sharma pointed out that often the registration of a property is done in the name of a person other than the actual owner with the connivance of the property dealers. The new notification, the Haryana Regulation of Property Dealers and Consultants Act, 2008, will plug such loopholes in any property transaction, as it will make the property dealer accountable. However, as per reports, most property dealers had not heard of any such regulations.

US based Wal-Mart Stores Inc, the world’s largest retailer has announced its plans to cut 11,500 jobs at its Same's Club megastores in the United States. Brain Cornell, Wal-Mart President and Chief Executive Officer said that the layoffs will affect approximately 10,000 product demonstration associates, most of whom work part-time.

In a move to retire its high cost debt, DLF plans to borrow Rs1,000cr through non-convertible debentures (NCD) by the end of this month. Saurabh Chawla, executive director (finance) of DLF said, "The NCDs will be issued for three years at an interest rate of 10.5 %. Axis Bank will carry on the process of issuing debentures and raising money for us." DLF’s net debt as of December 2009 was around Rs12,800.

Arun Sarin, former CEO of Vodafone Group Plc, has been in the news for being the recipient of the award of an honorary knighthood by the Queen of England for his services to the communications industry. Sarin became the CEO-designate of Vodafone Group Plc in April 2003 and the CEO from July 2003 to Jully 2008, taking the company through turbulent seas of recession. He is an American citizen of Indian origin, son of an army officer, born in Pachmarhi in Madhya Pradesh and a degree from IIT Kharagpur.

Inox Leisure recently purchased over 50% shares in Fame India, the multiplex chain, the last 7.21% holding being purchased on February 4th, taking its stake to 50.48% at a price of Rs44 per share. This has not got down too well with the Anil Ambani owned Reliance Mediaworks and a letter was duly sent to Fame India questioning why the much higher offer of Rs80 per share made by Reliance turned down. Anil Arjun, ceo Reliance Mediaworks admits that Fame is within its rights to sell 43.28% stake to anyone, but objects to the fact that this deal has setback the minority shareholders and also flouts SEBI’s acquisition code. However no complaint has been lodged so far.

Post a management reshuffle, Reliance Retail’s CEO of the food and grocery division, Gunender Kapur moved over to the privately owned equity firm TPG Capital, where he has been appointed as the senior advisor. His new job function will see him working on investment strategies in the consumer and retail sectors in the country. In the past few months, Reliance Retail has shown its preference for executives from Thailand to run its retail operations in India. A number of executives from Thailand’s Tesco Lotus, including CEO Gwyn Sundhagul, were hired recently.

Titan Industries, the watch and jewellery company has reported a six fold rise in net profit in the third quarter ended 31st December, 2009 as compared to the same last year. The profit of Rs75.43cr was achieved through various steps undertaken by the Company, such as booking exceptional items of Rs19.44cr, which included Rs12.78cr on account of reduction in the discount rate for actuarial valuation of employee benefits besides interest on income tax of previous years. The net sales in this October-December quarter amounted to Rs1,023.81cr, which is a 30.2% increase in comparison to the same period in the last FY.

Reliance Retail, which reported a loss of Rs260.2cr last fiscal, is bringing in professionals from Thailand to work their magic in turning the operation around. Inside sources have confirmed that already 10 execs from Thailand’s Tesco Lotus have been hired and 25 are due over the coming months, heading such operations as commercial, IT, supply chain and HR. In the news recently was the appointment of Gwyn Sundhagul, former chief marketing officer and director at Tesco Lotus, as CEO of value formats at Reliance Retail, Titima Bantrapiwat as head of supply chain and Sansahee Kubena as head of HR. The retail market of Thailand at one point was similar to that of India with neighborhood stores alongside the organized retailer. The $37bil worth organized retail in India has seen a huge growth in the recent years and the fall out is the subsequent talent shortage in suitable human resource to fill the posts. Reliance is also in talks with various global retail chains for a strategic partnership wherein Reliance will bring its strength of a financial partner and the partner can handle the managing of the retail operations.

Reliance Footprint, the chain that sells footwear, handbags and accessories, is upbeat with finally having turned cash-positive at the store-level. G Sankar, Chief Executive, Reliance Footprint disclosed that the chain will break-even post the huge expansion that is on the cards. The opening of additional 14 stores by June 2010 will take the store count to 30 and further additions till March 2012 will see the total count go up to 100. The move is being made keeping in focus the Rs14,000cr footwear market in the country that is expected to go up to Rs25,000cr in four years. A tie-up with ASICS Corporation of Japan will see the sports brand in Footprint stores. However, 10 EBOs for the brand will be launched across the country, with the first opening in Bangalore. Other possible addition at the Reliance Footprint stores would be specialised shoes for diabetics and disabled.

As per information from website of the Indian trademark office, the application for registration of Wal-Mart Stores Inc’s trademark Great Value logo, (‘GV’ in a circle declaring ‘Great Quality. Low Price’) that was file in 2008 by the JV Bharti-Walmart, has met with opposition. The website reveals that many of the other applications by the same firm in various other categories such as baby food, dental wax, dried fruits, jellies and jam, bleaching preparation, soap, cosmetics, hair lotions, have also been opposed. As reported in the Mint, while the Bharti-Walmart applications were made public late last year, a spokesperson from the Company denied any knowledge of the opposition and said JV would take the appropriate steps to protect the GV brand. The identities of those opposing was not disclosed. Bharti-Walmart’s other sundry trademark applications for Indian sounding names was also opposed and will not be contested. However, despite the application for registration of name Astitva not being processed as yet, Bharti-Walmart has gone ahead with the name of their private label brand for Indian ethnic products. The spokesman said that the legalities were already cleared.

Shoppers Stop is all set for a major expansion drive, for which it is to raise Rs250-350cr by the end of next fiscal. As per inside sources, the Firm may raise its stake in Hypercity from 19% to 51% and this option is to be taken by June 2010, pending the decision of the board. While speaking to the press at the CII retail conference, B S Nagesh, vice chairman Shoppers Stop, revealed that Rs30cr have already been raised via a preferential issue of warrants to promoters. Other fund raising means will include qualified institutional placements (QIPs). The expansion plans will see the addition of 14 Shoppers Stop stores by mid 2011 and six Hypercity stores by March next year.

Jubilant FoodWorks Ltd (formerly Domino's Pizza India) IPO, that opened on January 18, received a tremendous response, especially from qualified institutional investors, leading to it being oversubscribed 31.11 times. The price band was fixed between Rs135 and Rs145 per share for an IPO of Rs 10 through 100 per cent book building process. The qualified institutional investors' reserved portion subscribed 59.39 times, the non-institutional investors with 51.95 times and retail 3.78 times. The IPO of 22,670,447 equity shares closes for subscription today. The Company is going to raise Rs328.72cr at upper end of the price band. A commitment of Rs44.37cr has been received from anchor investors, which include Arisaig Partners, Blackrock, Canara Robeco MF, Capital World, Fidelity, Franklin Templeton, HSBC, Prudential, Reliance MF, SBI MF, T Rowe Price and Ward Ferry. Kotak Mahindra Capital Company Limited is acting as the sole book running lead manager to the offer. The offer comprises a fresh issue of 4,000,000 equity shares and an offer for sale of 18,670,447 equity shares by the India Private Equity Fund (Mauritius) and Indocean Pizza Holding Limited. The equity shares offered through the Red Herring Prospectus (RHP) are proposed to be listed on Bombay Stock Exchange Limited and National Stock Exchange of India Limited. Jubilant has a debt of nearly Rs 74cr and is exploring options to expand the brand to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Plans are to use part of the proceeds to repay Rs35cr debt from expansion.

Trent, the retail arm of Tata group, is in plans to add 11 Star Bazaar stores to its existing seven stores by March 2011. Gordon Reid, coo Star Bazaar reportedly said that two of the stores would be opened within this fiscal and the remaining seven to nine stores in fiscal 2010-11. The new stores would be set up at a cost of Rs70mil ($15mil) and located at new cities. The growth high comes from the increase in sales by 41% in April-December 2009 over the same period in the last fiscal. Trent launched their first Star Bazaar store in January 2008 in Bangalore.

The year old Vision Express, encouraged by customer response at its 41 stores across 18 cities, has devised aggressive growth plans of adding 60-70 outlets every year, taking the number up to 700 stores over the next 7-8 years. Vision Express is a equal JV between Reliance Retail and Pearle Europe and has in focus the booming Rs1,500cr domestic eyewear market, with only a minuscule organised segment, expanding at the rate of 10-15% per year. Guillame Brouwet, CEO Vision Express, attributed the brand’s success to offering international design and quality at mid-market pricing. He further revealed that the new additional services for the customer will include eye check-ups and style consultancy; also a tie up with LV Prasad Eye Institute to help customers select the right eye care products. Talking about adding various formats like shop-in shops, owned stores and co-located stores along with Reliance Retail, Brouwet said, “We are not bound by the JV and can independently expand our presence. We are experimenting with kiosks at select outlets in malls and airport. This will help us in brand awareness as well as optimising on space.” No details of the investment have yet been revealed.

Crocs Inc, the premium US based footwear brand that arrived in India in 2007 in a JV with Chogori Footwear has large expansion plan for this year. The Company has decided to woo the huge Indian middle by foraying in the mid-priced segment, besides increasing its presence in multi brand stores even across tier II cities. Mike Debell, Crocs vice president (South Asia) confirmed the expansion plans and revealed that another 14 exclusive outlets would be opened within this year, taking the total count of stores to 25.

As reported in ET, the giant French retailer Carrefour has been in negotiations with Future Group’s Kishore Biyani, to sign a franchise deal with Pantaloon Retail for setting up stores in India. As per inside sources, Thierry Garnier, Executive Director in charge of International Partnerships and Growth Markets at Carrefour, is leading the negotiation with Rakesh Biyani, Director Future Group and Kishore Biyani’s son and the deal might be signed by March. However neither Kishore Biyani nor Carrefour have commented on the above.

Reliance Brands, part of Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Retail is bringing the famous $1.5 billion US based footwear brand, Timberland to India. As per reports, the two companies have entered into a licensing and distribution deal and the first store will be set up in 2011. Reliance Retail has been working for the past two years to launch and build international and domestic brand equity in the premium to luxury segment across apparel, footwear and lifestyle businesses. This will be the third deal in the portfolio of Reliance Brands, the first two JVs being with two Italian brands, Paul & Shark, the sports lifestyle brand and the iconic jeans brand Diesel. However, Darshan Mehta, CEO Reliance Brands was unavailable for comment. Timberland is a premium segment brand and the shoes will range in price from Rs4,000 – 15,000. Timberland’s USP is its strong eco friendly outlook

The Mirah Group, owners of the Gujarati food chain Rajdhani, has been expanding their hospitality businesses with the acquisition of the Mediterranean/Lebanese food chain Falafel and the launch of Citrus Hotels and plan to invest over Rs300cr across 2010 to develop this segment. There are plans to take the number of outlets of Falafal brand, which was acquired three months back from JB Group's JB N JEG Foods, from seven outlets in Mumbai to 30 outlets across Banagalore and Pune. Their mid-market Citrus Hotel with 143 rooms was launched last month in Pimpri, Pune and five more will be unveiled shortly in Goa, Lonavala, Mahabaleshwar, Sriperambudur and Alleppey. These are fully functional hotels that have been rechristened Citrus after acquisition. About Rs200cr are ear-marked for the development of this chain. Their Rajdhani brand already has 45 outlets across 15 cities in India and also in Dubai and Oman. The group’s business portfolio included real estate development, travel, computer education, wind energy generation, textiles and international trading.

The men’s wear brand Turtle, which is based in Kolkata is seeking to expand by opening stores in Tamil Nadu. The Rs60crore Turtle is a mid-market brand and has seen good sales in this region where it earned nearly 18% of its revenues. SS Kundu, Turtle national sales manager said, “We will open around 6 to 7 exclusive brand outlets (EBOs) in major cities of the state, including Chennai and Coimbatore, by the end of this fiscal. We are looking to increase the availability of our products in MBOs and reach 100 stores by March 2010."

The Aditya Birla Group is entering a partnership deal with State Bank of India (SBI) to launch co-branded credit cards, which will be made available across more than 2000 retail outlets of the Aditya Birla Group companies - Aditya Birla Retail, Aditya Birla Financial Services Group (which includes Birla Sun Life Insurance and Birla Sun Life Mutual Funds), IDEA and Madura Garments, the customers of which will comprise the over 28 million customer base of the card. Ajay Srinivasan, Chief Executive of Financial Services of Aditya Birla Group said, "The Aditya Birla Group already has a strong presence in the financial services business, as a significant player in the non-bank space. And we are committed to meet all the felt and unfelt financial needs of our target customer. Today, we take yet another step in that direction, with the signing of a MoU with SBI Card, to offer a co-branded credit card to the customers of the Aditya Birla Group."

Reliance Retail is mulling an entirely new business model wherein it will open small outlets within large companies. The news was reported in the local press as unconfirmed. However, inside sources have allegedly said, "We will approach big corporate houses, where thousands of people work, with a proposal to open our small retail outlets there. It will offer discounts to employees. Our initial plan is to start this with our TimeOut stores where we sell music, books and gifts. Our bigger formats may not be viable for this option. The details of the new business model are yet to be worked out and the company is also looking at options to forge joint ventures with these firms."

The Future Group-owned logistics company, Future Supply Chain Solutions has planned an investment of Rs500cr, spread over two years for the development and expansion of its supply chain network in the country. The funding for the investment will come through debt, and equity infusion from Hong Kong based Fung Capital, which had bought a 26% stake in the Company in 2008 for $30mil. At present Future Supply Chain Solutions is operating 30 supply chains across India that service 1,100 retail outlets with a fleet of over 500 vehicles.

Simon Smith, Retail Director Allen Solly at Madura Garments, has ended his brief year and a half stint to join Marks & Spencer in Prague as CEO. His credentials includes a two year stint with Marks & Spencer, Turkey.

Jumbo King, the one of its kind branded ‘Vada Paav’ kiosk chain in Mumbai is upbeat and hopes for an ambitious 35-40% annual growth over the next three years. As per official sources, the expectations are based on the strong foothold the brand has created in Mumbai. Dheeraj Gupta, Managing Director Jumbo King said, "We expect a growth of 35-40 per cent year-on-year over the next three years from Mumbai market. Last year the growth was stable. We did not grow much due to economic slowdown,.” He further elaborated that although the Company grew by merely 20% in 2008-09 and is anticipating only 15-20% in the current 2009-10, it was due to the ongoing recession and cost cutting measures taken by the Company.

Rosebys Interiors India Ltd, home furnishing and lifestyle retail chain has reportedly tied-up with Style Spa, the furniture retailer to consolidate its retail presence by opening more than 100 shop-in-shop outlets in India. The partnership is going to be on a revenue sharing basis based on monthly sales. The launch will take place in two phases with Rosebys launching around 50 in-store shops followed by another 50. Nikhil Sen, Director, Rosebys, said, “With organised home décor and lifestyle products retailing growing at more than 30 per cent annually, there is a huge untapped market for the home décor and lifestyle market in India which is pegged at around Rs 14,000 crore. This tie-up is in line with our growth strategy and will give us an opportunity to reach our target group. This partnership will help our brand have a dominant presence in the country's retail arena.” Arun Mahajan, Managing Director, Style Spa, said, “It is an exciting occasion for both these strong brands to come together and we at Style Spa are equally confident that this partnership of ours with Rosebys would enable us to provide more value to our customers through.”

The Future Group is reportedly making major expansion plans for its KB’s FairPrice stores, the number of which is likely to go up to 850-900 in same areas. Damodar Mall, Group Customer Director of Future Group said, "We will expand KB's FairPrice shops in select towns. First, it will be a concentrated approach in the markets we are already present in like Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore. The report on the closure of a number of KB's FairPrice stores was incorrect. It is a business model where, we will keep churning old localities and getting into new ones. If we have closed one store in a locality, we have opened another in the same catchment. We have mapped 850-900 KB's FairPrice shops. The model is low-cost and revenues from these stores have been the highest among all the modern trade players in the neighborhood space. The model is viable and a part of our expansion plans." He also revealed that the count of Big Bazaar stores would also be taken upto 350 from the existing 120 Big Bazaars across 67 cities of India. However no timeline was decided upon for this by the retailer.

The world’s largest retailer, Wal-Mart Stores Inc, has been earnestly knocking on India’s door for a major entry. Denied regular retail operations, this has taken the form of a Bharti-Walmart JV which has launched the ‘cash-n-carry’ format, Best Price, in Amritsar last year. The alliance has also launched eight of Wal-Mart’s private labels through their outlet and Bharti’s own chain, Easy Day. Now a spokesman of Wal-Mart has indicated that their overseas private label vendors are keen to set up operations in India. Once established, these vendors would not only supply Best Price and Easy Day outlets but also other retail chains as well. The spokesperson did not reveal the names of the vendors or the time table. While some observers fear that this step would flood the retail space, others welcome the move as it would develop Indian raw material suppliers and boost employment. Wal-Mart already has a major multi-billion dollar sourcing network in India for international requirements.

McDonald’s has picked Don Thompson, head of US ops, to be their new President and Chief Operating Officer in place of recently retired Ralph Alvarez. Alvarez had cited health reasons to retire from the post. Jim Skinner, CEO said, "Don Thompson has done an outstanding job leading our US business, and I am confident he will bring the same energy and innovative thinking to his new global role." The upward shuffle will result in Janice Fields, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of McDonald's USA moving up to occupy the cabin vacated by Thompson and Jim Johannesen, currently US President - Central Division, moving into the post vacated by Fields.

Gagan Deep Singh - General Manager & Head Apparel - South Asia Retail Operations of Reebok has changed ship. He has joined Home Shop 18 as GM -Sourcing & Planning. HomeShop18 is a 24 hour Home Shopping TV channel from the TV 18 Group. Gagan is a GMT from NIFT and has worked with Opera House, Triburg and GAP before Reebok .

Branded jewellery major Gitanjali Group’s retail arm, Gitanjali Lifestyle is in plans to add multiple business formats such as perfume stores, mini theatres, spas, fine dining restaurant chain and specialty cosmetics. As per the Companies projection, in another five years they would add more than 4 million sqft and retail business will touch Rs10,000cr. Sadananda Pawar, president Gitnanjali Lifestyle said that the expansion strategy was aimed at the large youth consumer base in the country. Already talks are on with two European Spa operators and space for the fine dining set ups is being explored. High tech mini theatre chains are in the planning stage as properties are being signed up. The premium jewelry brands, Nakshatra and Gilli will be extended into perfumes, bags, fashion accessories and even apparel and wedding fashion. The recent acquisition of 76% stake in Salasar gives them access to nearly 200,000 sqft of retail space in 10 multi level stores in North India and will see the roll out of Maya retail stores. Currently Gitanjali Lifestyle has 148 stores (0.5 million sqft) across India for its various brands like Gili, Asmi, D’damas, Nakshatra, Italian cutlery store Greggio, luxury watch store Bezel and Maya department stores.

Heritage Foods, the south India based retailer with 75 fresh@ stores across Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai is considering rebranding of its outlets as Heritage Fresh because the consumers did not identify the brand with the parent company, as per sources. Post rebranding, the plan is to double the number of stores and also expand its flagship format outlets occupying 2,500 sqft. The smaller 1,000sqft daily format outlets will not be scaled up. S.Jagdish, Heritage Foods COO explained that the conservative expansion plans of the Company helped in attaining higher productivity levels as compared to other retailers. For now, the expansion will be limited to the same three cities.

The competition in Coffee shop retail space is getting hotter with more chains waiting to come in and existing ones reworking their strategies. The latest reports are that Costa Coffee has taken a fresh look at its marketing strategies, which will result in closure of unprofitable locations and revamping of more profitable outlets. Devyani International, master franchisee Costa Coffee, plans the take the outlet count of the chain from 40 to nearly 250-300 by 2014. The first stage of expansion will be in metros but plans also include tier II and III cities, with special emphasis on the coffee loving Southern towns. At present Costa Coffee’s four formats are locations like airports, malls, high street and IT parks. In the new plan, kiosks will be introduced to generate ‘off-premise businesses. A new fusion menu, Mogiano (part Mughlai and part Italian) has also been introduced to cater to the Indian palate.

The French retailer Carrefour is resorting to severe cost cutting measures with plans to close its headquarter located in Levallois-Perret in Paris, where currently the company executives and employees of different Carrefour brands work. The move will help cut costs by as much as 20-30%, although it will entail moving the employees and executives across the other three sites in Paris.

There are some market rumours that Debenham's will close operations in India. As a result there will be a mad scramble for some of the prime properties that it is sitting on.

Raymonds, the Indian apparel major and the world’s third largest worsted suiting fabric maker, which already has over 600 outlets across the country is planning on adding another 200 over a period of a year and a half. Elaborating further, Gautam Hari Singhania, Chairman and Managing Director Raymonds said, " We recently entered into Tier 3/4/5 cities and towns with our iconic brands. This will play out to further consolidate our end-to-end leadership position in the industry… We are bullish on the long term Indian consumption story and we believe in creating markets." Answering questions about his plans to foray into real estate business, Singhania replied, “The Company is planning to develop 18 acre surplus land to develop affordable residential property in Thane Maharashtra in the first phase. Depending on the response to this project, we will decide our future strategy for the real estate business." Raymond's Thane unit covers an area of 160 acres, which also has a school and a hospital in it.

Reliance Retail is mulling an entirely new business model wherein it will open small outlets within large companies. The news was reported in the local press as unconfirmed. However, inside sources have allegedly said, "We will approach big corporate houses, where thousands of people work, with a proposal to open our small retail outlets there. It will offer discounts to employees. Our initial plan is to start this with our TimeOut stores where we sell music, books and gifts. Our bigger formats may not be a viable for this option. The details of the new business model are yet to be worked out and the company is also looking at options to forge joint ventures with these firms."

DLF’s board of directors has approved the integration of Caraf Builders & Constructions with DLF Cyber City Developers, a subsidiary company of DLF. Caraf Builders is a promoter held company and is the holding company for DAL (DLF Assets Ltd), which buys out commercial property from DLF and in turn leases them out. A special committee of independent directors was constituted by DLF’s board to examine the possibility of integration of rental business held both by the company and its promoters. The Company said in a filing to the BSE that the aim of this integration of rental business was to eliminate conflicts of interest and achieve management integration. No value was assigned to the deal which is being termed as ‘cashless transaction’. Post-merger the promoters, which include KP Singh and his family members, will hold 40 per cent in Caraf Builders while the remaining 60 per cent would be owned by DLF. The necessary corporate and regulatory approvals will have to be obtained before the DLF’s board grants the formal approval, a process that will be implemented in due course of time. Kotak Mahindra Capital and Enam Securities were the transaction advisors and independent valuers to the special committee. BMR & Associates and KPMG were the tax advisors.

Spykar Lifestyle continues to deal with products for youth, adding café chains to its existing business of jeans and apparel for the young. The business move was made to boost revenues by tapping alternate verticals for the same consumer segment. Sanjay Vakharia, Spykar Lifestyle director said, “We want to explore new opportunities for the youth. In jeanswear, the scope is limited.”

Gitanjali Lifestyle Ltd, a unit of Gitanjali Gems Ltd, has acquired 76% in Salasar Retail Ltd, which deals in every aspect of retail, trade and distribution of cloth, cotton, synthetics, silk yard and readymade garment. Devashish Dutta, chief executive Gitanjali Lifestyle revealed that he planned to expand by adding 40 multi-format stores under its ‘Maya’ brand over three years and expected revenues of Rs1,000cr from multi-format stores. The 'Maya' branded outlets currently contribute about Rs200cr in sales annually. Dutta said, “We are just trying to integrate apparels with jewellery.”

Asda, British super market chain owned by Wal-Mart, has declared war on the ‘phoney price claims’ in the industry in UK by announcing that it will begin its biggest price roll-back for a decade. The price of 3,600 essential products and cupboard staples including potatoes, carrots, grapes, bananas, milk, nappies, rice, bread, cheese and yoghurt, will be reduced throughout January. The reductions are going to be long-term cuts, with most of the cuts lasting a minimum of 6 to 12 weeks. The average price of products will be rolled back by 13%. As per Company sources, while the price cuts are deep, it’s the breadth of cuts that make this the biggest at Asda for more than ten years, with one-in-five products across the store rolled back in price, thereby benefitting every Asda customer irrespective of their budget, or what they bought.

Marks & Spencer (M&S), one of UK’s oldest retailers reported a 2.6% increase in group sales for its third quarter of the financial year 2009/2010. Sales in general merchandise rose 3.2% and food rose 1.3%, adding up to a rise of 2.3% in home market sales. UK like-for-likes grew by 0.8% during the quarter, Marks & Spencer’s first increase since Q2 2007/08. Its international sales posted 6% growth and online sales were up 32%. Chairman Sir Stuart Rose said: “We expect the trading conditions over the coming year to remain challenging as a result of continuing economic uncertainty. We believe however, that customers will continue to seek out real value and quality for which we are justly famous.”

Venky’s India, the makers of ready-to-eat chicken products and part of the Venkateshwara Hatcheries group are ready to launch their retail chain ‘Venky’s XPS’ to market their products. Anuradha Desai, Venkateshwara Hatcheries group chairperson said. “All our chicken in minutes (CIM) products will be offered at the XPS outlets, which we will roll out gradually. The differentiating product at the Venkys XPS will be the grilled chicken, which no one else offers, along with our existing range of cutlets, kebabs, sausages, curries, etc. These outlets will encourage take-aways since we do not want to encourage people to sit there and eat.” The first two outlets will open in Pune, followed by one each in Chandigharh, Bangalore and Mumbai.

In a move to tap India’s book retailing industry, Reliance Retail (Mukesh Ambani) plans to open 45 TimeOut stores across India over a period of 3 to 5 years, starting with the five stores in Mumbai over the next few months. Reliance Retail is a multi format retailer and already has seven Reliance TimeOut stores retailing books and music. As per Company sources, the aim was to tap India's Rs 3,500-crore book retailing industry, of which only 40% is organised. Deepinder Kapany, Reliance Retail, Business Head, Reliance TimeOut said, "In the next 3-5 years (or December 2014), we will have a total of 45 TimeOut outlets across four states - mainly in western and southern India. Our strategy is to first saturate a town, then a state followed by the entire region." He added that, "The next few stores in (calender year) 2010 will come up in Delhi, Ahmedabad, Mumbai and Bangalore. We want to saturate Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka and the National Capital Region (NCR)." The expansion will be through the cost-effective model of revenue-sharing format with property owners. Towns that are part of this aggressive expansion strategy are Pune, Nagpur, Hyderabad, Mysore, Mangalore, Ahmedabad, Baroda and Jamnagar.

Segafredo Zanetti, the premium Italian coffee chain, in an exclusive franchisee agreement with the Delhi based Xenia Foods, plans to enter the Indian market with 25 coffee shops to be opened over the next three years. Of this, six are to open in the national capital region (NCR) in 2010. As told to HT, Nitin Mayor, director Xenia Foods said, "The total investment will be around Rs25cr and we will invest close to Rs1-1.5cr per store." He also disclosed that the average size of the store would be around 1,400 sq ft and the company would opt only for the revenue share model for the rentals, which will account for 30-35 per cent of the total operational cost. The marketing strategy targets upwardly mobile people, hence the coffee shops would be present only in the premium malls and high-end streets of a city. After NCR the company would enter Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad and Kolkata. "All coffee brewed at our outlets will be imported which had been grown in South America and roasted in Europe, making the coffee sold at our outlets premium as compared to those sold at other similar such outlets," Mayor said.

The apparel and accessories retailer s.Oliver, a $2.5bil German fashion and lifestyle brand present in India through a JV with Orient Crafts, has made aggressive growth plans for its presence in the Indian retail market. As per reports, a sum of Rs47cr is to be invested until 2012 towards taking the count of its outlets and shop-in-shops to 77 across the country. The brand also desires to position itself as the largest premium segment brand in India in six years and is going to introduce a range of high-end accessories in multi-brand chains. Currently it is in the same league as Van Heusen and Louis Phillipe. Gaurav Sehgal,Chief Operating Officer, s.Oliver said, “We have spent Rs 18 crore in opening four outlets and three shop-in-shops. In the next three years, we will spend the balance Rs 47 crore to take our total points of sales to 77, including 39 outlets and 38 shop-in-shops.” Amit Rai, CEO, s. Oliver India said,“We at s.Oliver think very positive of the business environment ahead and harbour a strong feeling that the next wave would see a meteoric rise in the share of branded apparel retail segment. People are aware of global fashion trends and demand the same here in real time.” The Brand has 5,000 outlets globally.

Realty major Unitech, which had applied for approval in November 09 to raise $700mil through foreign currency convertible bonds (FCCBs) has been denied the same by the finance ministry (FM) and Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The authorities objected to the developer’s request to exempt it from a three-year lock-in clause applicable to such investments in construction. Although Unitech said that the funds would be used for an integrated township and not for repaying existing debts, it was looking overseas to raise money to bring down the overall cost of debt, which is around 13%. The Company said that as FCCBs are convertible instruments, they should be treated as debt till the time of conversion and they would be issued to portfolio investors. However the final say on the matter rests with the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB), which is the nodal agency for foreign investments. Unitech has already got the support of the department of industrial policy and promotion (Dipp), the key government body responsible for framing foreign investment policy, which has written a letter to the FM suggesting a waiver of the lock-in period in this case. Although the government has allowed foreign direct investment (FDI) in construction through the automatic route, it had imposed the lock-in in real estate to prevent an asset bubble. Should Unitech get the desired approval, it will be the first case of a realtor being allowed to raise funds through the FCCB route. It was the mandatory lock-in that made Unitech defer its plans to raise Rs5,000cr through global depository receipts (GDRs),for which they had sought FIPB’s permission in March 2009. Unitech has already raised $900mil (Rs4,000cr) through two rounds of qualified institutional placements (QIPs) earlier, this year.