THE YEAR THAT WAS...

January: The happy journey begins

Year 2012 started with a bang as the global coffee player Starbucks announced its India entry. It inked an MoU with Tata Coffee. The second big announcement that cheered up the retail industry was the nod given to 100 per cent FDI in single-brand retail later in the year.

Salman Khan’s NGO brand, Being Human, made a strong entry into retail as it went online and also tied up with Landmark Group to retail its products in Middle East. The brand also later tied up with Splash to retail products in India and has recently opened its flagship store in Mumbai.

In top management shuffles, Reckitt Benckiser’s Raghunandan and Walt Disney India, Mahesh Samat called it quits.

February: Luxury eyes India

The month of February began with the entry of two international luxury brands into the Indian market. Robert Cavalli in collaboration with Infinite Lifestyle, a Manav Gangwani firm, launched the brand and Café Cavalli in India. Another luxury brand, Armani Junior entered the Indian market through its franchisee Unique Eye Luxury Apparel, a Suneet Verma and Mumtaz Siddiqui initiative. Both brands now have a store each in DLF Emporio.

The Canali which has been operating with Genesis Luxury from the past four years formed a 51:49 joint venture for retail operations in India. The JV will invest `7.65 crore.

The F&G biggie, Jubilant Foodworks after tasting success with Dominos brought in Dunkin Donut to India. Currently there are eight Dunkin Donuts across Delhi/NCR.

E-retail remains a lucrative sector as people including Arun Sirdeshmukh of Reliance Trends and Anurag Rajpal of BHPC put in their papers to kickstart their own venture. While Arun Sirdeshmukh runs his e-retail portal Fashionara.com, Anurag Rajpal has unveiled his brand American Swan which will be sold through online retail.

Moreover, e-retail also saw the insurgence of international players including Amazon and Medico. While Amazon entered in a tie up with Junglee.com, Medico made its standalone entry as Medico.in.

March Budget woes

March was high on e-retail with a lot of movement in the industry. Brands including Bwitch and arttd’inox took the omnichannel route as they went the digital way with their e-portals. On the other hand, edabba, a one of its kind e-retail venture began catering specifically to the rural India.

March was dedicated to domestic brands expanding their wings in the country. Kimaya, the well known one-stop shop fashion retailer, with the aim of targeting women in Tier II and Tier III cities unveiled its ethnic designer ready-to wear label – Karmik. Also Baba Ramdev’s Ayurveda brand Patanjali made its retail entry offering products 30 per cent cheaper than the items available in the market.

The month also brought in the much awaited budget which proved to be a lukewarm deal for retailers. A lot of product categories including auto and consumer durables became dearer along with services like F&G.

April Omnichannel: The new buzzword

A new strategy of retail was adopted with which a consumer could possibly take retail therapy and also indulge into relaxing and grooming of oneself. This strategy came to light as EasyDay and Naturals tied up to launch Naturals Salon within the premises of EasyDay in the NCR.

Retail showed its strength hereafter as the jewellery retailer, Tribhovan Das Bhimji Zaveri (TBZ) launched its IPO with a price band ranging between `120 and `126 with the strategy of expanding its retail wings across the country.

Omnichannel remained the buzzword throughout the year. In April, Croma, one of the biggest CDIT player, took a digital leap to reach a larger audience offering a gamut of products and offers.

In April, two Italian brands ventured in India. The first to enter was Italian luxury apparel maker, Canclini Tessile, which formed a JV with Tirupur-based Emperor Textiles while the second to enter was Pinellii, which appointed Berkeley Retails Limited as the official licensee to produce and retail its products in Asia.

The cherry on the was that one-of-its kind watch phone brand Burg marked its Indian entry and jotted down plans to open 20 outlets by April 2013 while the current count is eight.

May: The Black month for Retail

The Indian retail was so far so good till the end of April but it was May which had a lot of shocks in store. Adidas announced financial irregularities in their India operations, later it was revealed that Reebok’s MD Shubhinder Singh Prem had stolen company goods worth `8,70 Crore. Shubhinder is now behind the bars but Reebok operations were badly hit during that time. Latest News from Reebok is that Gurgaon police has filed charge sheet against Subhinder Singh Prem and Vishnu Bhagat who were allegedly involved in a fraud amounting to `11.3 crore and not `870 crore as it was earlier estimated.

Nirula’s were hit as the man behind the chain Samir Kuckreja called it a day with the chain that he nourished for so long. Lilliput and L capital had a mismanaged relationship which ended due to disparity over valuation and agreement particulars.

But life moves on and so it did for these brands. On the other hand Dunkin’ Donuts, Bally and ‘Destination Maternity’ popped up in the news with their second stores opening this month.

June: Investments poured in

Retail needed a flurry of investments and this was the time when a few of the biggies announced their investments plans. McDonald’s shared their vision to invest `1,000 Crore for the next three years. Most of it would go for the expansion of retail where they were aiming at 500 McDonald’s across India. Later in the year the popular food chain was seen exploring tier-1 and tier-2 cities of India. Amul was not far behind as they started investing into the industry as they shared a figure of `3,000 Crore in the coming years. The plans were to enhance its daily milk processing capacity from 145 lakh litre to 180 lakh litre. Pantaloon’s emotional separation with Kishore Biyani’s Future group was another highlight of the month. Though it’s not easy for any parent to let their first child go into another hand but Biyani, the retail God, just did that with selling off Pantaloons, their first retail venture.

It was this time of the year when Starbucks started making news. The JV signed 14 properties across New Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai. 

July: Celebrities showcasing retail

Retail is so often glamorized by getting celebrities to endorse products. July was the month when celebrities were reported becoming the face of brands. Fila was endorsed by Virender Sehwag as their first ever brand ambassador in India as they completed 100 glorious years in retail. Anushka Sharma, the new Diva of the B-town was seen praising sanitary napkin brand Sofy whereas Deepika Padukone was riding Yamaha motor bikes.

Beyond celebrities, retail had other offerings as well. Domino’s 500th store was up in the cards and it became reality when they opened their store in Rajendra Nagar, New Delhi.

All went well this month except for Zara’s plan of expansion which saw a setback when their FDI proposal to set up single-brand retail stores on Indian shores was rejected by the government. They never tried after that.

August: Promising month

The global retail business tasted the power of Indian retail heads. Acquisitions and brands entering Indian territory: overall a promising month for Indian retail. Indian bathroom fitting giant, HSIL acquired UK’s luxury sanitary ware brand Queo and opened exclusive stores in GK and Gurgaon.

It was the time when Indian rupee was running at an all time low against the dollar but there was a sigh of relief when Sahara India announced a massive investment plans for retail. Sahara for the first time entered the retail industry with a massive `3,000 crore investment plan and on the occasion of Independence Day, they triggered their stores for the first phase. The name was Sahara Q shops claiming to fight against food adulteration. They roped in the whole Indian team for their campaign against adulteration with a slogan “Aao kare Milawat se Jung”.

L Capital was in talks with top Indian designers to create an Indian luxury house resembling LVMH Louis Vuitton Moet Henessey. For the same, L Capital roped in fashion designers Rohit Bal and Sabyasachi Mukherjee.

September: The FDI flurry

The biggest news that gripped Indian retail not just in September but through the year was the approval of 51 per cent Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail. The final decision was left up to each state.  IKEA’s 10,000 crore proposal to set up 25 stores and cafes within stores in India has received an approval from the FIPB.

Moving ahead, the month was packed with various acquisitions and joint ventures. Madura Fashion & Lifestyle (MFL) went on to announce a joint venture with Hackett London - the quintessential British men’s luxury clothing and accessories brand. Three store opening were on their charts for the year.

Infiniti Retail Limited announced its acquiring of Woolworths Wholesale (India) Private Limited for AUD $ 35 million.

The month ended on a high note with Arvind Lifestyle Brands announcing the acquisition of the business operations of British fashion retailers Debenhams and Next and American Lifestyle Brand Nautica in India from Plant Retail.

Pakistani designers set up shop on Indian turf with the Pakistan Fashion Design Council launching their first flagship store ‘PFDC-The Boulevard’. PFDC has brought 17 Pakistani designers to India.

October :Starbucks spills the beans

October saw the launch of Starbucks in India. Tata Starbucks, the 50:50 joint venture between Starbucks Coffee Company and Tata Global Beverages, opened its doors to the first Starbucks store in India. The 40 year old brand has started their journey in India, with a store at Elphinstone Building at Horniman Circle, Mumbai. They now have stores at four locations that are operative in Mumbai.

While Timex went online with the launch of its web store for both Timex & Helix, active Facebook pages for both the brands and a funky Youtube brand channel; V-mart opted for the IPO route to raise `120 crore to fund its expansion strategy to double its store count to 120 outlets by 2015.

Max Hypermarket which had acquired Auchan earlier in the year, rebranded its existing ‘SPAR’ stores in Bengaluru and Mangalore to ‘Auchan’. Five stores have been re branded till date.

November: The highs and lows

November witnessed certain highs as well as lows. Myntra and PVR were on an expansion spree with the acquisition of Sher Singh and Cinemax respectively. While Sher Singh was acquired in a cash-cum-equity deal, the Board of Directors of PVR Limited (PVR) announced their entering into definitive agreements to acquire 69.27 per cent stake in Cinemax.

Spreading wings, Atmosphere launched its e-commerce arm, Atmospheredirect.com while Punjab Grill, from the Lite Bite Foods umbrella went international with the opening of two outlets each in Bangkok and Abu Dhabi. The industry lost a stalwart this month, with the unfortunate demise of Chetan Shah, Indian Managing Director of Pepe Jeans London. He passed away in a scuba diving accident while on a holiday in Maldives.

Esprit, the much loved American brand geared up to exit India. The brand which made its India entry through a deal with Madura Fashion seven years ago, was said to be bearing annual losses up to the tune of `20-25 crore which led the brand to call off their innings in India. They have now completely shut shop here.

December: The month of new beginnings

The beginning to the end of the year witnessed Westlife Development Limited announcing the consolidation of some of its group companies. As a result of the proposed consolidation, Hardcastle Restaurants Private Limited (HRPL), a Master Franchisee for west and south India operations of McDonald’s Restaurants was to become a direct subsidiary of Westlife Development Limited (WDL).

Arvind inked an exclusive distribution deal with Australian surfwear brand Billabong for the Indian market. Under the agreement, Arvind will promote and market the brand in the country and will be opening up stand-alone stores, as well as shop in shops in department stores and leading multibrand stores.

Jiggs Kalra entered into a new venture Massive Restaurants Pvt. Ltd. with India’s leading hospitality brand Mirah Hospitality. They will operate under three brand verticals of Fine-Dining Restaurants, Smart Casual Dining Restaurants and Luxury Mithai.