Godrej Agrovet Ltd, the retailing unit of Godrej Group, plans to open 100 agri-retail outlets under its ‘Aadhar’ brand in four states in the next one year. “We will be launching another 100 retail stores in Punjab, Gujarat, Haryana and Maharashtra,” Godrej Agrovet general manager Videep Singh said. Godrej already has 47 stores in these states and would like to have more retail outlets in the same states, as logistically it would be easier, economical, he said.

Mumbai-based ophthalmic, optics and instrumentation company, Lawrence & Mayo Opticals (L&M), is planning to expand its dispensing network across the country.

The company would open 20 stores over the next two to three years, each entailing an investment of around Rs 75 lakh.

“Our focus this year would be on further consolidating our presence by opening four to five more stores in the existing locations, before moving on to tier-II cities like Salem, Kozhikode, Bhubaneswar, Surat and Madurai from next year in a phased manner,” Amitava Mendonca, marketing director of L&M, said.

The 130-year-old company with 43 stores in 17 cities including six in Hyderabad, clocked revenues of Rs 104 crore during the last financial year, with 70 percent of it coming from the opticals business.

The Indian optical market, both organised and unorganised, is currently pegged at around Rs 2,000 crore. L&M commands around 15 percent market share in the organised sector, according to him.

Arvind Murjani Brands, which sells Tommy Hilfiger products in the country, plans to open 11 more exclusive outlets within the next six months to meet the rising demand for branded garments.

"We have nine exclusive outlets in seven cities now. We plan to open 11 more this year, making our presence in nine cities by the end of December," Shailesh Chaturvedi, CEO, Tommy Hilfiger Apparel India said.

Although he declined to give the total investment the company plans to make in India, Chaturvedi said it usually takes Rs 1-2 crore to put up an exclusive store.

He said the company would open an exclusive store in Ahmedabad this month, while an outlet in Pune would be launched within two months.

Chaturvedi said the company had no plan to go to Tier-II and Tier-III cities since it would not make much business sense at the moment.

"We will concentrate on top ten cities like, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Delhi and Mumbai."

The company, Chaturvedi said, will have a large retail store in Delhi, but in Mumbai it would like to increase its footprint in multiple locations.

"We have two stores now in Mumbai. We plan to have six stores by the end of the year," he said.

Taking realty major DLF head-on, Emaar MGF is planning to build India's largest mall, the announcement for which will be made in the next six months. Currently on the drawing boards, the mall will ape the world's largest mall (spread over 5.8 million sq. ft.) being built by the company’s partner (Emaar) in Dubai. Till date, the largest mall to be announced in India is DLF's Mall of India along NH-8 in Gurgaon that will be spread over 3.6 million sq. ft.

“The mall will have the same flavour as the Dubai Mall that has 3.77 million sq. ft. of retail space as well as the largest walk through aquarium in the world. The mall in India is in the planning stages and we will be making it public in the next couple of months,” says Shravan Gupta, executive vice-chairman and managing director, Emaar MGF. With 65-70 percent of Emaar MGF’s land bank in the north, the upcoming mall is likely to be built in the Delhi NCR.

Inspired by the scale of projects that its UAE-based partner Emaar is engaged in executing (like the Dubai Mall and the tallest tower in the world, called the Burj Dubai), Emaar MGF is also planning to come up with similar such real estate projects in India in the coming years. The first such project is Boulder Hills, a residential-cum-leisure complex at Hyderabad, which will have the largest golf course in India.

10 May: CARBON , the fashion jewellery and lifestyle accessories brand, is gearing up to make waves in the Indian fashion accessories market. Having introduced the concept of branded jewellery in India a decade ago, Carbon is all set to expand nationwide through a network of 40 exclusive brand outlets (EBOs) by the end of 2008. The Bangalore-based company, whose products cater predominantly to the women's fashion accessories segment , is also looking to tap the men's accessories segment in a big way.

"The firm plans to expand its retail presence with exclusive stores across the country. The brand has to develop this channel of distribution because it is in exclusive boutiques that the brand is seen in its true glory, where brand identity and imagery can be conveyed a lot better to customers," said Mr Mahesh S Rao, managing director, Carbon Accessories . The company is also eyeing the franchisee route to expand. With the Indian retail scene undergoing a rapid transformation, designers the world over are betting big on Indian branded jewellery, which has the potential to rake in big money. Carbon Accessories recently roped in fashion designer Sanchita Ajjampur, who's label Sanchita for Carbon (an exclusive signature range), according to Mr Rao, would give the company the necessary thrust to take the brand global.

"The strategy is to build a brand of international repute, while still on Indian shores, before we target exports. A fashion brand needs to innovate constantly . Having outsourced the manufacturing of our products, we can now focus our energies on designing products ," he said. The brand which started off with limited distribution and retail through shop-in-shop outlets in large format stores, is present in eight exclusive boutiques today. Carbon, available in 12 exclusive collections, sells over 20,000 accessories annually.

10 May: Women in Indian cities will now be able to pick up Etam French lingerie, swimwear and innerwear for any occasion, addressing every mood, from a store not too far away.

With Miss India Earth Pooja Chitgopekar showcasing the lingerie collection of Etam, the leading French fashion apparel brand announced its joint venture with Pantaloons Retail (the Future Group) here late Thursday.

Both the companies will have a financial participation of 50 per cent in the enterprise and the clothes will be sold under the brand name 'ETAM Future Fashion Private Limited'.

Etam will open 40 outlets across 20 cities in India with an investment of Rs 900 million. Currently, Etam has seven stores and six shops in stores across five cities in India.

10 May: Pharmacy chain Fortis Healthworld today said it will open 250 outlets by the end of this year as part of its Rs 800 crore pan India expansion plan.

The pharmacy chain opened its 10th store in the national capital region today.

"We plan to open 250 stores by the end of this year. The newly-launched store marks the journey of Fortis Healthworld`s national plans," Fortis Healthcare managing director Shivinder Mohan Singh said.

The company had earlier announced that it would open 1,000 `one-stop-shops` across the country in the next five years entailing about Rs 800 crore investment.

Singh said the company had set a target of having presence in 400 cities across the country in five years.

To begin with, the stores will be launched in metros and mini-metros first and would be either company-owned or under the franchisee model.

"The current ten stores are company-owned and we are also open to the franchisee model if required to establish a strong presence nation wide," Singh said.

These 24/7 stores provide the customers with pharmacy goods, diagnostic centre, personal care products, health food and supplements, ayurvedic and homoeopathic medicines, health goods, and value added services like prescription reminder, OPD appointments and free home-delivery.

17 April: The Rs 1,469-crore Titan Industries has just opened its pilot store in prescription eyewear Tital Eye+, in Bangalore. Titan Eye+ will provide both eye check-up and style consultancy services. A brilliantly lit colour-splashed,1,000 sq ft, browse-feel-buy outlet has been designed for this purpose.

There are monitors placed at strategic angles in the store that record your visage as you try on various frames and then play them all back to you in sequence, so you select the frame that best suits your facial cut. There are separate browsing lines for men, women and children.

Until now, since glasses were perceived as utilitarian products, consumers rarely bought them as fashion accessories. With the entry of branded players, there could be new benchmarks in style, just the way Tanishq changed the way gold jewellery was retailed in India. Since 1995, the watch and jewellery maker had been retailing sunglasses under the Fastrack brand, targeted at the youth. These will now be retailed from Titan Eye+.

10 May: HCL Technologies, a global IT service provider; and Saba, the premier Human Capital Management (HCM) software and service provider have joined forces to provide Saba's products bundled with HCL's services to the customers.

The two companies will provide their services and relationships throughout Asia Pacific, mainly India, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore. They are also planning to expand in North America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.

When asked about the expansion plans in India, Sandeep Malhotra, deputy general manager (Industry Solutions) of HCL Technology said," We will soon expand in the Indian market (including HCL Infosystems). The company will not be seen as product resellers, but will be solution integrators and will provide professional services. The product license and support will be directly sold by Saba, and HCL will implement and support these products."

The two companies are targeting several vertical markets including media & entertainment, healthcare, financial services, retail, hi-technology and manufacturing.

Saba will offer knowledge management services such as learning management, system implementation, performance management, talent management, e-learning and courseware. The company already has its sales and marketing office in Mumbai.

The Indian customers will be offered Learning Management System (LMS) in-house, and Product Implementation system benefits. The Saba LMS, implemented by HCL, is a high level strategic solution for planning, delivering and managing events within an organization; and includes e-learning, re-skilling, talent, and employee first initiative (practiced by numerous companies).

Malhotra further stated, "It is a knowledge offering, which will enable employers to scale up in the knowledge management chain such as learning, training and so on. The Indian enterprises will be strengthened by these offerings as a lot of companies are demanding for such services,"

On the question of the preferred choice being Saba, Malhotra concluded, "Saba has a large market share in HCM software and an excellent roadmap. Besides, HCL has a long-standing relationship with Saba because we have already implemented the Saba Learning Management System (LMS) in-house."

Insight into global F&B retail

MOGUL OF INDIAN LUXURY RETAIL
Mr Mehul Choksi,
Chairman and Managing Director of the Group. India has a royal heritage of luxury with its jewellery and diamond industry recognised world over.

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Mr Amit Khaneja,
Vice Chairman, Collage Group talks about the group and its various projects, Collage mail in particular, in an interview with the Retailer