Developers' feedback

Mr Pradeep Seth

Chairman

Stadia group

There is a huge scope for organised retail industry to expand in the country in the next five years as organised retailing is nascent but   growing fast. High street markets have always been there and continue to get footfalls despite better environment for shopping in terms of ambience, air-condition, food and entertainment provided in shopping malls. For a mall, brand mix is decided on the basis of ‘kind of development’. Usually retail for apparel, shoes, and accessories form the major part and it would ideally take about 60 per cent of the area while food takes up around 10 per cent and entertainment between 10 to 15 per cent. The balance is shared between electronic and home accessories. In malls, anchors have an edge over the vanilla brands as they are major drivers of footfall. However, developers make best efforts to lease out their malls at the most competitive prices without compromising on the quality. We are offering discount destinations to retailers for our Stadia Supercentre projects.

Mr Navin M. Raheja

Chairman-cum-Managing Director

Raheja Builders

For shopping malls, Delhi-NCR, Rajasthan, Punjab and Haryana are hot destinations. In India, the organised retailing is still nascent and there is plenty of scope for growth in the coming years. The industry will see more and more successful formats emerging and this will create competition. Before taking up any mall project, population-based catchment analysis for the city including neighbouring cities is made. Understanding the primary business along with infrastructure and accessibility does play a major role. For the success of a mall, viability of the floating population in the vicinity in the age group of 19 to 24 should be, besides literacy rate, determined. A successful format leads to discussions with brands to determine expected turnovers, which leads, in turn, to area allocation.  Successful format planning and brand identification are key factors in determining mall competitiveness.

Mr Ashok Bansal

Director

Suncity Projects

The Indian retail market is still experimenting many formats. There is  not a perfect model for sale, leasing or revenue share. Till now, there is no such thing as ‘a perfect format’. A mall needs to cater to people living in catchments. Besides, factors like accessibility, demand and supply in the market, consumption patterns and growth trends are all critical in deciding a lot of things. Hence, a thorough knowledge of these is crucial. However, decision on ideal time for promoting a mall depends on the target audiences the communication is directed to. At the stage of launching, the market and brands need to be informed and after fit-outs, communication needs to encourage footfalls and shopping. The positioning of mall, integrating the essence of its brand mix and strengths, drive the competitiveness. For mall success, percentage allocation of all brands like apparel, footwear, food and beverages, entertainment should be made carefully and rightly. Anchors do play an important role for the successful running of malls. But, their selection also depends on catchments, demographic, economy and disposal incomes of consumers.

Siddharth Gupta

Director

Emaar-MGF Developments  

As the industry gets more organised and streamlined, retail real estate decisions also reflect and respond this devolvement.  India's retail sector is evolving at a swift pace owing to a strong economy, favourable demographics, rising wealth levels and rapidly changing lifestyles and consumer aspirations of an ever burgeoning middle class. The total retail mall stock has been doubling every year - from a meagre 10 lakh sq.ft in 2002 to a staggering four crore sq.ft by 2007-end and approximately six crore sq.ft 2008-end. New systems of mall management are coming into play as retail players seek to optimise presence and conversion from the traffic that enters malls. Indian retailers are discovering that ‘mall environment’ is the necessity for product and brand adjacency, consumer activation on the shop floor. So is ‘mall ambience’ that promotes a sense of freedom equally for shoppers and window shoppers as well.

Today, developers are increasingly looking into the ‘softer’ aspects of providing a right mix of tenants, ensuring adequate category and brand mix. They are also looking into robust supporting infrastructure that includes power facilities, parking solutions and one-stop-shop for complete family entertainment with exciting retail mix of brands.

Mr Rohtas Goel

Chairman-cum-Managing Director

Omaxe       

While cost is obviously a major consideration, location plays an important role. Before building any commercial property, we keep in mind that location should be in high traffic and high visibility area. We, being a customer-oriented company, focus on the convenience of our customers and a location with good signage and ample space to walk around and drive traffic. Besides, we ensure that there is local schooling system, property tax, basic facilities like local market and conveyance facilities available in the area. In a shopping mall, there is one season. Everything is in the same place - shops, parking, cinema, restaurants and supermarkets with cleanliness, security showcasing occasionally even fashion shows. Street shops are quite sporadic and high streets offer limited variety of products, compared to mall. In several factors such as tax benefits on housing loans, cheap availability of finance and overall booming economy, the real estate sector has seen happy times. Today, market trend is towards retail only.  So, every company going into retail is or will be booming. The phase of high growth of Indian retail sector is expected to continue due to huge amounts of investments and breaking up of traditional concepts in this sector. And, this is leading to various changes providing further boost to the growth of the sector.

Mr Nischal Puri

General Manager-Marketing

Jockey brand

Nischal Puri says that consumers started demanding the best organised retail today. The single largest impediment to retail expansion of brands is real estate pricing. Pace at which the real estate prices have increased, especially in the last three years has forced brands to readjust their business models. Product pricing, retail margins etc. - all have been subjected to re-strategies in the light of the obnoxiously high real estate prices. However, location merits in terms of walk-in potential, brand mix in the surrounding shops and real estate price are the key deciding elements in opening an exclusive brand outlet.

Mr Ramneek Bakhshi

Master Franshisor

L J Hooker

The Indian consumer is fiercely value-driven and service-centric. For any brand that enters the Indian market, it certainly takes time to position itself in the new market with competitive market positioning, pricing and value proposition it brings. Local brand sales are affected for sure but this effect is not very noticeable. Real estate does play an important role in the expansion of any brand. But, in our case where we look for just 800 – 1,200 sq.ft area for our franchise office, we have not faced price as an issue on our way to expansion. An average rent of Rs 70,000 - 80,000 is being paid for offices at retail locations of metro cities.