Vandana, The Week Mumbai, April 22, 2013 It has been six months since the Indian government allowed 51 per cent FDI (foreign direct investment) in multi-brand retail. However, in spite of numerous attempts at wooing foreign retailers, there has hardly been any investment. Global retailers who had lobbied for access to India's multi-brand market have, so far, shied away from entering. “It is not enough to criticise the government,” said Finance Minister P. Chidambaram. “India Inc. should go back and loosen their purse strings.” Commerce Minister Anand Sharma and his team at the department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP)…
CONTINUE READING
Caroline Perry, Drapers London, April 20, 2013 With a youthful population, and growing affluent middle class that is projected to grow tenfold by 2025, retailers have long eyed up this vast country as one ripe for expansion, but it has remained a complex proposition with many challenges. "There is still a lot of low-hanging fruit in India," says Ira Kalish, head of consumer business at consultancy Deloitte. "But the retail market is still dominated by family-owned stores. Only about 15% of the market is modern retailing." This slow growth has been due to India previously being closed to foreign direct…
CONTINUE READING
Suneera Tandon, MINT (A Wall Street Journal Partner) April 16, 2013 Radio jockey Alisha Anand, 26, is ready to spend Rs.26,000 on a pair sunglasses from American luxury label Tom Ford this summer. The Delhi-based Anand, who works for 94.3 FM, budgets for a pair of new shades every summer, although she agrees that this year, “it’s a bit expensive”. Women like Anand are driving up sales for companies such as Luxottica India Eyewear Pvt. Ltd. The local subsidiary of the Luxottica Group, which sells brands such as Ray-Ban and Oakley, has seen the number of women consumers double in…
CONTINUE READING
Raghavendra Kamath, Business Standard April 10, 2013 The newly opened 23,000-square-feet-standalone flagship store of UK's department store chain Marks & Spencer (M&S) at Koramangala in Bangalore has a different look from the existing stores of the chain in the city. Each of the eight brands of the British retailer are clearly segmented and displayed using props and visual merchandising. For instance, its brand 'Limited Collection' has been given a fashion-focused feel with an illuminated catwalk, while women's casual-wear brand 'Indigo Collection' has been displayed with trestle tables and denim mannequins. Another women's wear brand 'per una' is presented with white-washed…
CONTINUE READING
Nilofer D'Souza, Forbes India April 2, 2013 In what could put the government’s controversial new foreign investment policy in retail to an impact test, French group Auchan has announced its first retail store, Decathlon, in Bangalore. It is the first big-format niche retail chain to open in an increasingly fitness-conscious urban India that craves for sporting space and quality equipment. The Euro 43 billion French group’s venture is one of the early bird licences under a new investment policy which allows 100 per cent foreign funding of single-brand retail stores. Though the government had cleared the policy in November, some…
CONTINUE READING
