Changing the face of Sri Lankan Retail

Odel, one of the leading multi brand retailer of Sri Lanka, plans to expand its wings within the country and looks further at moving to neighbouring countries.

Sri Lanka, is now growing immensely in terms of retail. Still a market of homegrown retailers, one of the largest which has emerged in the country is Odel. A multi-brand retailer, mix of both inhouse and international brands, is all set to enter new market and flood it with best of fashion for individual, pets and home. Retailer got the opportunity to explore more about Odel in its home country Sri Lanka. Otara Gunewardene, Founder & CEO, Odel gets candid with Gunjan Piplani.

Retailer: Share the idea behind creating Odel and the need at the time you started?

Otara Gunewardene (OG): Odel was started with the aim to offer customers a fashionable product range which was easily accessible. Retail in Sri Lanka, 20 years ago was very little organised. We started off with a vision of offering the best of products and brands to the customers in the country. Our USP is to offer a product range at affordable prices in an environment that is customer friendly.

Retailer: Which brands are you working with at Odel stores?

OG: We have an array of brands including Embark, Backstage, Delight, Luv SL, Otone and Otara Jewellery. All these products range from merchandise for a CSR project for street dogs to Sri Lankan souvenirs and from clothes and fashion accessories to home. We see ourselves as a one stop solution.

Odel also has various international brands being sourced from Asia and Europe.

In Odel, 70 per cent of our product range is private label and remaining 30 per cent is European brands and other brands Private brands are key contributors to the overall financial performance of Odel.

Retailer: Odel recently tied up with Parksons, can you share the details about the tie up.

OG: Parkson Retail Asia (PRA) bought 47 per cent stake in Odel for LKR 2.5 billion in July 2012. Under the acquisition, Parkson can gain a strong foothold in Sri Lanka’s burgeoning retail industry through Odel’s operations and leading brand position further enhancing their operations and presence across Asia.

Retailer: Looking at the expansive operations what is the size of your workforce and how do you ensure training of the same.

OG: Our staff strength is across 900. We are doing regular training to improve customer service standards as good customer service is essential for the brand.

The work ethic is driven by a sense of professionalism and determined to a large extent by performance management. In furthering this ethic, in 2011/12, Odel introduced an online performance management system to the workplace with established Key Performance Indicators for all executive level staff of the Odel team.

Non-Executive development programmes are many, and include set modules for retail development, ongoing training for interpersonal and communication skills enhancement, career development and personal development programmes. In addition, the Fast Tracker programme which is a talent management tool looks to identify talented individuals and to fast track their development through intensive but selective training in core areas of the Company’s operations as well as interpersonal skills.

Retailer: Does Odel plan to enter Indian market or eyes any other international markets? What model do you look at?

OG: With the tie up with Parkson we will look at the opportunities to take the Odel concept or some of our private brands to their stores. India is a market we would love to enter as we have a big clientele of very loyal Indian customers. We also look at reaching Indian market through our e-retail model as we ship our products globally.

Retailer: What are your marketing and promotional strategies?

OG: Our key focus has always been on strengthening of private-brands to deliver greater value. We mainly focus on a mix of above the line (ATL) and below the line (BTL)s activity. Our ATL activity mainly focuses on the Print medium whilst the BTL tools focuses on traditional and innovative modes of advertising.

Building brand loyalty remains a key priority for Odel.  Integrated communication plays a critical role in the efforts to build brand loyalty with an array of activations, promotions, social media interaction and above the line advertising serving to strengthen the brand in the minds of the consumer.  We also have the Odel Loyalty Card expected to play a focal role in propagating repeat purchases.

In a bid to better understand customer needs, Odel initiated a number of customer surveys.  The findings from these have assisted towards further improving the service and product mix. 

Retailer: What is the retail presence of Odel in Sri Lanka? What is your expansion plan of the same?

OG: Odel is the only listed fashion retailer in the country and continues to set the benchmark for the rest of the retail industry in the country.

From an operational perspective, our foray into cascading the Odel product and service offer across the urban and semi-urban localities of Greater Colombo, and other central cities in Sri Lanka have yielded significant growth in volumes.

However, the strategy of expansion is not only limited to increasing the Odel store footprint. Odel continues to strengthen and expand its private brand strategy, adding variation to the product offer and gaining access to different customer likings. We are looking at mainly expanding Odel brand further in the local market and in the long term to look at expansion in the neighboring countries.

Retailer: What are your current revenues and investments and what are the plans for the next fiscal?

OG: Current Revenues are at SLR 4.2 bn per annum. These increase by 10-15% per annum. Investments of around SL`4.5 bn are planned which are not yet finalised.