Value retailers are doing better: Rakesh Biyani, Future Group

In the quest of acquiring larger pie of retail sale at airports Future Group is eyeing to tap airport locations with launching Future Lifestyle Fashion stores across Goa, Lucknow, Bhubaneswar and Guwahati airports soon. The company is also planning to bid for Chennai and Chandigarh airports. Also with its ambitious Retail 3.0 strategy Future Group is planning to launch around 200 Brand Factory Stores blended with technology in the coming years while eyeing to bring in 1 cr online Indian customers to its different formats of offline stores. Hence, while candidly speaking about the Future Retail’s future strategies Rakesh Biyani, Joint Managing Director, Future Retail Ltd. during ReTechCon 2018 in Mumbai.

Do you have plans to expand your Brand Factory format stores?

Under our Retail 3.0 strategy we are planning to expand the presence of Brand Factory Stores across the country. The stores will be blended with technology in the coming years. The format is doing well and seeing its performance we are planning to launch 200 more stores in the coming years.

And what will be the focus for Central stores?

Simultaneously we are focusing on Central stores with more emphasis on celebrating categories with wider space allocated to them. Such as in the store we have footwear spread over 18,000 sqft and handbags are spread over 6,000 sqft among other categories. Central is about brands and new products. Consumer seeks choice and Central offers assortment of choice.

With FLF’s airport retail outlets which are the locations you are eyeing at?

We are in the process of tapping airport locations with launching Future Lifestyle Fashion stores across Goa, Lucknow, Bhubaneshwar and Gwahati airports soon. Next we are bidding for Chennai and Chandigarh airports.

What will be the size of these stores and seeing high rental cost at airports how will you attain profitability?

The Goa stores will be of 10,000 sqft and others will be of 4000 sqft. Goa airport has a rent of Rs 3000 per sqft per month thus time will tell the profitability. But the price of the products at these will be same across inside as of outside of airport.

How will you bring online consumers to your offline stores?

We are aiming to bring 1 cr online Indian customers to our different formats of offline stores. For this we does campaigns like India Decides The Price on Twitter. With every retweet the price keeps coming downward. The campaign is done on jeans, backpacks, luggage, and home products among other. The campaign is for Big Bazaar, Central and it has got amazing response with sale is going up by four to five percent.

According to you why retailers have reduced the numbers of discounting days?

Things are now striding towards good balance with some retailers reducing the numbers of discounting days and the overall sale optimizing well. Likewise any industry goes through a cycle every retailer is trying to do something or the other to gain the market share.

Finally are you planning increasing the number of Cover Story stores?

Cover Story has 12 stores and we could launch similar number of stores in the coming years. The brand is into fast fashion. Value retailers are doing better.