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October 9, 2014
Parimala
S. Rao, Catalyst (The Hindu Businessline)
Chennai,
9 October 2014
“Amma, can we whatsapp the photo to Pramod in Dubai?”
asks the youngster excitedly, after his mum has taken a picture
of him in front of a towering grey-and-yellow model of a Transformer.
She nods, and he grins happily, proud that he can show off his
very own bit of high-end retail to a friend in the Gulf. It’s
this spirit that seems to imbue the hordes of shoppers and visitors
to Kochi’s retail mecca – LuLu Mall.
Opened just over a year ago, the complex covers a sprawling 17 acres near an intersection of three highways and houses over 215 retail luxury and lifestyle brands, including those in the food court and entertainment areas, with more waiting to set up shop in the 25 lakh sq ft of leasable space.
Owned and managed by the EMKE group, the LuLu retail chain has had a strong presence for over two decades across West Asia, with over 90 malls and 110 hypermarkets in 34 countries, including Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Doha, Bahrain, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Setting up shop in Kochi in early 2013 was a considered decision based on the recognition that, with rising disposable incomes, shoppers in the region had more cash in hand, not to mention the ennui that had set in with the sameness of merchandise on offer at all the glitzy retail spaces nearby.
Typically, malls need to target the population within a few kilometres’ radius. However, due to the large square footage, a mall such as Lulu needs to build its brand as a destination catering to a highly mixed profile of customers, says Devangshu Dutta, Chief Executive at consulting firm Third Eyesight. “A destination mall’s viability depends on a large enough pool of customers with a high discretionary income and a positive spending outlook, as well as infrastructure that supports ease of travel to the mall. Economic conditions in recent years have been conducive to large shopping-entertainment developments like the Lulu Mall,” he adds.
On a humid Sunday afternoon, the enormous and cool interiors draw swathes of visitors, generations of families out to shop or just to have a good time — for instance, among the many wonders at the packed Sparky’s fun and games zone. This is a fantasy land of golden roundabouts, bump-a-cars, a 5,000-sq ft ice-skating rink and a 12-lane bowling alley, as well as a games arcade.
But this is Kerala, and any mall here would have to be different in one key respect – jewellery stores. There are about half a dozen of them in the mall, traditional old-world stores jostling for attention with others offering trendy, offbeat designs.
At 4 pm, they are already full of shoppers. There’s an NRI family buying wedding jewellery at Bhima’s, while a group of chic Kochi ladies is inspecting a new line of gold-and-silver necklaces at Avatar Diamonds.
The 25-year-old Avatar brand has branches across the State and abroad. There is a big spike in sales to locals during the wedding season, a salesperson says, but over the next few months, the main shoppers will be NRIs visiting for the holidays. There are customers from Bahrain and Saudi, for whom the brand has created special lines.
Across the corridor are designer Western wear outlets. Business is good, especially during vacation time, say the store managers at Vero Moda and Jack & Jones, while the manager at high-end leather goods store Calonge says discerning clientele seek out its trademark braided leather products. Everyone’s on the lookout for promotions and offers, though, and there are plenty of those.
International offerings
LuLu Celebrate, the mall’s three-storeyed flagship store, specialises in bridal wear but also offers a wide variety of sarees and salwar sets. If luxury is in focus, quality and affordability are also important, says Ajmal, a floor manager at Celebrate. This is why the shop is so popular with people from Kochi and nearby. Looking to pick out a traditional Kerala saree for a friend, I find the offerings range from the simplest mundu with a plain-coloured border for less than ?500 to a beautiful cream-and-gold designer affair for about ten times that.
Nearing 6 pm, the crowds are so thick that there are small queues near the escalators — though there are 18 of them! Shoppers can take breaks at the many facilities on offer. There are water fountains, baby-rooms, rest-rooms, ATMs, even a bank that is open 365 days from 10 am to 11 pm. Prayer rooms, first-aid and ambulance services are on offer too. A 300-room JW Marriot hotel is located within the complex, and PVR Cinemas runs a busy multiplex.
The most crowded part, though, is the 2-lakh sq ft LuLu Hypermarket, India’s largest. If we thought getting into the mall was difficult (car lines were three abreast and about 300-m long), this would be even more challenging, with a surging wave of people trying to get in. Queues at each of the 27 check-out counters were about 10-people-deep each, forcing us to reluctantly give up the idea of sampling its fresh and frozen delicacies and the diverse cuisine at its hot food counters. There was also no time to check out the 2,000-seater food court with 22 kitchens, nine restaurants and many coffee shops. Lulu Mall Kochi’s Marketing Manager Aiswarya Babu later says the hypermarket not only stocks international foods but also believes in sourcing local and encouraging growers of organic produce.
Brand-aware shopper Madhulika Menezes, who lives in Chennai, says she spent a brief but interesting time at Lulu Mall some months ago. All she had time to shop for was some deliciously flaky and flavourful baklava at the hypermarket, but it gave her a taste of what to expect. When she goes back, she will allot at least a day to tour the mall.
Long-haul business
Built at an investment of over ?1,600 crore, the mall, which now has an occupancy of 95 per cent, is operating at a trading density that is among the top 10 in the country, says Shibu Philips, Business Head, Lulu Mall, Kochi. As mall developers and their investors realise, this is a long-haul business where no one expects to start earning profits before 8-10 years. For a group that has been operating malls for over 20 years, the primary concern seems to be to put customer delight on par with the profit angle. One cannot happen without the other, as it has shrewdly recognised.
About the impact such large malls have on smaller counterparts in the vicinity, Third Eyesight’s Dutta says: “A destination mall that comes up within the catchment of other existing malls certainly reduces the footfall into those malls – this impact is the maximum in the first two years after the launch. However, smaller competitors can survive and thrive if they differentiate and focus their offerings to be highly relevant to the local population, many of whom still frequent smaller malls, the high street and traditional markets, and visit the larger mall as an occasional outing.”
Aiswarya Babu says that, on an average, 60,000 visit on weekdays, and the number goes up to 95,000 on the weekends.
Lookalikes?
Given its success, will there be a rush to emulate the Lulu model? As Dutta says: “Successful destination malls do inspire other developers to consider similar projects. However, the overlap of high population and high spend, and the ability to consistently drive footfall, is a difficult combination to create. At this time, the number of large malls that can be supported is limited. So, while new destination malls could cannibalise traffic from the older mall, a lot depends on how well they are planned and executed, and how Lulu Mall handles itself in the face of such future competition.”
A vision statement on the Group’s web site quoting Managing Director MA Yusuffali commits to making the world a harmonious place to live in, in every way possible. If the Group’s vision is to go beyond the merchandising to create a fun and happy space for families or a hangout for the young, to offer all sections of society a global experience, as it were, it has certainly achieved this. Big retail, it seems, is the new equaliser.
(Published in Catalyst – The Hindu Businessline.)
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October 6, 2014
Shruti
Chakraborty, Quartz India
Mumbai,
6 October 2014
The fireworks began much before the festival, when India’s
e-commerce giants rolled out glittering advertising campaigns,
reportedly spending some Rs200 crore, last month.
That’s a small indicator of the big prize that India’s shopping websites including Flipkart, Snapdeal and Amazon are fighting for—the massive bump in sales in the festive season surrounding Diwali (October 23).
Without dominating this season, no website can hope to lead the
all-out war this sector has come to resemble. For smaller sites,
this month alone can account for a third of their annual sales.
And with every passing year, the size of Diwali sales is rising.
But what makes this online contest exceptional is that the entire
e-commerce sector in India, too, is coming off an exceptional
year. There’s been a massive capital influx, strong growth
in the user base and a steady uptick in adoption of online shopping,
partly a result of improved economic sentiment since a new government
took over in New Delhi.
“We have grown more than 600% in the last year or so,”
said Sandeep Komaravelly, senior vice-president for marketing
at Snapdeal.com, which has 20 million registered users and reaches
over 4,000 towns and cities in India.
“Given the increase in the scale of our operations, we are
expecting a 100% jump from the sales we had last year during the
festive season,” Komaravelly added.
The company has already seen the results of their marketing efforts
early on in the festive season. Between 3rd and 5 October, Snapdeal
registered a 100% jump in sales and sold a smartphone every six
seconds, a laptop every 20 seconds and a tablet every 30 seconds.
A saree was sold every 30 seconds and a pair of shoes every 10
seconds.
“We expect it to be the biggest Diwali we have seen so far,”
Komaravelly said.
Flipkart, the other homegrown e-commerce giant, seems to have
similar expectations with its ‘Big Billion Day’ campaign—purportedly
India’s biggest sale (currently underway, not entirely glitch-free),
with deep discounts and offers across 70 categories. “A large
chunk of the annual business happens in the time between Dussehra
and Diwali,” said Shoumyan Biswas, head of offline marketing
at Flipkart.
But this time, the festive season could be so big that Flipkart,
which has 22 million registered users, reportedly doubled its
delivery staff over the last few months.
Some of this expansion may well have been coming. The e-commerce
market has attracted huge investment in the last year. In July,
Flipkart raised $1 billion, the biggest round of funding in any
Indian startup and one of the largest amounts raised in a single
round worldwide. Within a day of Flipkart’s funding announcement,
Seattle-headquartered global e-commerce major Amazon said it would
invest $2 billion in its Indian operations.
Snapdeal, after raising $233.7 million this year, may also be
looking for more money. Tata Group’s chairman emeritus Ratan
Tata and Wipro chairman Azim Premji are investors in the firm.
E-commerce players have scaled operations and expanded teams,
with the fresh rounds of funding. “In the last couple of
months particularly online retailers have gotten a lot of visibility
with their fundraising rounds and partnerships,” said Devangshu
Dutta of Third Eyesight, a consulting firm focused on the retail
and consumer products industry.
“Compared to previous years, a lot of money has been spent on driving traffic and they have gotten a lot of press. The companies have improved their service and delivery infrastructure as well.” There is also a shift in the consumer mindset now. Shopping online is more than just experimentation for customers, he added.
It’s not just the sheer numbers of online shoppers that
go up around the festivals. The typical basket size also increases.
“Customers spend around Rs1,000 on the website at other times,
during Diwali the average goes up to Rs1,500 on our website,”
said Sanjay Sethi, CEO and founder of Shopclues, which registered
over Rs350 crore ($56.8 million) in online sales last year. “We
expect a 40-50% increase in sales this festive season.”
And as India’s online marketplace matures, it’s not
just discounts on electronics and fashion—typically the most
popular e-commerce segments—that attract consumers. BullionIndia.in,
for instance, a startup that allows customers to buy gold and
silver online at wholesale price, is offering a discount around
Dhanteras, an auspicious day preceding Diwali when Hindus purchase
precious metals.
“While customers are buying other products online, buying gold and silver online hasn’t caught on as much. But we are offering discounts at this time and that has impacted our sales positively,” said Sachin Kothari, director, BullionIndia.
(Published in Quartz India .)
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October 6, 2014
Avinash
Bhat, The New Indian Express
Bangalore,
6 October 2014
As Diwali approaches, brick-and-mortar retailers are scrambling
to compete with online websites offering hefty discounts to woo
shoppers.
Offers like one-plus-one and 50% discounts are becoming the norm across shops.
This week, major online retailers like Snapdeal, Flipkart, Jabong and Amazon announced campaigns to target festival shoppers. Realising the need to compete, physical retailers are also offering huge discounts.
The online market in India has been growing at a dizzying pace, and attracting huge investments. In 2014 alone, Flipkart raised $1 billion in funds while Amazon announced plans to invest $2 billion in business expansion. Snapdeal, another online retailer, attracted a sizeable investment by industry magnate Ratan Tata, who has put in an undisclosed amount into the Delhi-based company.
According to a study by research firm Crisil in February this year, the online retail sector is estimated to grow at 50-55% for the next three years. Revenues have already touched Rs. 13,900 crore in 2012-13, and are likely to grow further as the online market share in the overall retail space still remains small.
This growth has not escaped the attention of brick-and-mortar sellers, who are being compelled to ramp up their online presence. Trader associations have vowed not to supply goods to online retailers who sell below the market price. This has led to online retailers saying that they are mere marketplaces where the prices are decided by other sellers.
As murky as the situation might be, consumers are the clear winners in the entire deal.
“I have been buying products online for a long time now. They offer door delivery and in case I do not like the product, I can get it returned without having to go to a store and wait in line. This is much simpler,” says Arvind T, an HR professional in the city.
“The offers are sometimes better or at least as good as the stores when you factor in the delivery and the ease of shopping online,” says Siddharth R, an IT professional.
It is this ease of shopping online that is adversely affecting the more traditional methods of shopping, feels Devangshu Dutta, CEO of Third Eyesight, a retail consultancy.
“Offline retailers have been investing in infrastructure since 2000, and there is high capital involved. As long as they are able to respond to these (online) offers, they do not have to match the discounts as they have a very large segment of touch and feel buyers,” he says.
However, the writing on the wall is clear for physical stores, Dutta feels.
“They need to match the service offered by the online sites. With assured service backup with online retailers, customers will go for the lowest priced products and a difference of even `200-400 could be a deal breaker for some,” he says.
Diwali sales under way
(Published in New Indian Express.)
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October 2, 2014
Reghu
Balakrishnan, Business Standard
Mumbai,
2 October 2014
The Indian private equity (PE) sector has, of late, been witnessing
a churn at the top. In the past two months alone, at least six
top executives have quit leading PE firms, citing reasons such
as starting their own funds, a lack of performance by the existing
funds, and entering the e-commerce space, which has recently witnessed
a lot of action.
Among the notable exits is that of Kanwaljit Singh, co-founder and senior managing director of leading venture capital (VC) fund Helion. Singh quit two weeks ago to pursue his interest in the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) space, according to a Helion statement.
Singh serves on the boards of Attano, Fashionara, Hurix, HummingBird, LifeCell, Mast Kalandar, Qwikcilver, Yepme and YLG Salons. He has also worked with FMCG giant Hindustan Unilever.
Vikram Utamsingh, managing director, Alvarez & Marsal India, said: “In a few situations, the senior PE executives have had success with their funds and have developed a good track record, and now feel it is the right time to become entrepreneurs and raise a fund on the back of their track record.”
Another noteworthy exit is that of KKR India’s PE head Heramb Hajarnavis, who quit this month to set up his own venture. Before joining KKR in 2010, Heramb was the managing director of Goldman Sachs’ principal investment unit.
“We have also seen a couple of PE professionals wanting to move from PE firms that do large-size deals to those that do small- and mid-size deals, as the volume of mid-size deals is quite high. This is because the carry fee that PE executives earn depends on the deals they do and the returns they make on those deals,” said Utamsingh.
According to Sunit Mehra of executive search firm Hunt Partners, the disputes among founders is one of the major reasons for such a churn. “Most of these firms are partnerships driven by first-generation entrepreneurs. Over the past four years, this industry has seen tremendous stress. Inevitably, this phase has had (and will continue to have) an impact on business fundamentals of several of these ventures, and, in addition, has tested relationship between the founders.”
However, a few have joined the e-commerce bandwagon, which attracts a major chunk of talent from India Inc nowadays. Last month, Nishant Verman, vice-president of venture capital firm Canaan Partners, had quit the firm to join India’s largest e-commerce platform Flipkart to take care of mergers and acquisitions. Abhijeet Muzumdar, former vice-president at Bessemer Venture Partners, joined Amazon India to get involved in investments and acquisitions in India. Abhishek Kumar, head of investments at Palaash Ventures, joined Snapdeal with a similar role.
“A mid-level manager in a PE or VC fund is specifically looking at companies that can be invested in or acquired for further growth with a relatively short span of time. Well-funded e-commerce companies that are in a rush to gain both growth and margin are also looking for acquisitions or partnerships that can provide them an inorganic boost. So, there are certainly overlaps in the skill sets needed,” said Devangshu Dutta of Third Eyesight.
Recently, Rahul Khanna, managing director of Canaan Partners, launched a Rs 300-crore ($50 million) debt fund. Khanna is reportedly quitting Canaan and getting involved with the new venture by the next year.
(Published in Business Standard.)
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September 28, 2014
Arpita Mukherjee, Business Today
Mumbai, 28 September 2014
About
a decade ago, Suresh Goklaney, visited his sister in Daytona Beach,
US. There, the Executive Vice Chairman of Eureka Forbes happened
to meet Fred Tepper, Founder and President of Argonide Corporation,
which makes nanotechnology-based water purifiers. The company
then adopted this technology to launch a portable water purifier,
Aquaguard On The Go, in 2014.
Seven years ago, a Eureka Forbes salesperson, also called a Eurochamp,
pointed out to Goklaney that the quality of water supplied to
Indian homes varied through the day. The company subsequently
launched a water purification device, Aquaguard Sensa, in 2008.
The device, automatically detects impurities, senses the water
quality and adjusts itself to the level of purification required.
More recently, in July the company took an initiative to use
refrigeration techniques that condense water from atmospheric
air in Mumbai. The technique can generate 120 litres or 500 glasses
of drinking water every day.
The above examples illustrate that there has been change and
development at the three-decade old company over the years. Indeed,
the Shapoorji Pallonji Group company, credited for bringing in
the concept of water purification into the country and known to
scale up cautiously, has been making an effort to retain and grow
its market share in an intensely competitive environment, particularly
in its core water purifier business.
Still, experts feel that the company has been slow to change given the rapidly changing market dynamics. Harminder Sahni of Wazir Advisors, a Gurgaon-based retail consultancy, suggests that the company, known for its signature water purifiers and vacuum cleaners, has to evolve rapidly to keep its nose ahead of competition. "Whatever Eureka Forces is attempting had to be done because as a company you cannot stop trying things," he says.
The water purifier business accounted for about 50 per cent of
the company’s revenues in fiscal 2012/13, the latest period for
which figures are available. It is a leader in the Rs 3,400-crore
market. The company has more than 70 per cent share in the ultraviolet
(UV) purifier market but is facing stiff competition in the fast
growing reverse osmosis (RO) segment from Kent RO Systems. Kent
claims it is the leader in the RO market with 40 to 45 per cent
share.
Eureka Forbes says it has a 36 per cent market share. Meanwhile,
several other players have emerged as a threat to Eureka Forbes
including Hindustan Unilever (HUL), Nasaka, and Ion Exchange.
"In recent years, while the market has grown enormously,
intense competition has significantly impacted the lead and advantage
that Eureka Forbes had. Both new business as well as repeat revenues
from existing customers have been hit," says Devangshu Dutta,
CEO of consulting firm Third Eyesight.
An issue for Eureka Forbes has been its reliance on direct sales.
Its salespersons (Eurochamps) go from door-to-door conducting
product demonstrations and convincing people that their appliances
are the best. Eureka Forbes has an army of more than 8,000 Eurochamps.
However, with the emergence of gated communities, cold calling
as a strategy has not been as effective.
It has forced the company to seek new ways of reaching out to
customers. "The challenge in the environment is how I get
you to open the door with gated communities," says Goklaney,
adding that the company would never look at disbanding its army
of salespeople. "My core is my eurochamps who have built
the brand over the years."
To tackle the problem, the company has moved over to digital
marketing to persuade customers to ask for demos. The company
today is strongly visible on the digital platform, and also in
some newspapers ads, flashing numbers for customers to call. Retail
sales is still not a big focus area for the company. Sahni of
Wazir Advisors suggests that the company’s dependence on direct
sales, ignoring retail, is a handicap for Eureka Forbes.
Companies such as Kent, HUL and several others are not just innovating but are also retailing their products aggressively. Kent, for instance, has not just roped in a celebrity (cine star Hema Malini) to endorse the brand, but has also unveiled new products. It recently launched a water purification product, Kent Tap Guard that cleans tap water and makes it safe for household use such as washing fruits and vegetables. "The company is expanding into various categories in a small way but is focused on the RO segment," says Mahesh Gupta, Chairman, Kent RO Systems.
‘In recent years, while the market has grown enormously, intense
competition has signifi cantly impacted the lead and advantage
that Eureka Forbes had. Both new business as well as repeat revenues
from existing customers have been hit,’ says Devangshu Dutta,
CEO, Third Eyesight.
Water purification products from the likes of HUL and Kent are
far more visible at retail counters than Eureka Forbes but the
company is undeterred. "We believe that direct sales is our
core and we would persist with the strategy," says Goklaney.
Eureka Forbes appears to have fallen behind in one key emerging
business segment – gravity-based water filters that can work without
electricity. In 2009, Kent launched this product in India, seizing
the first-mover advantage – Eureka Forbes has yet to establish
its foothold in the market. The market potential for gravity-based
water filters is huge given the crippling power shortage in most
parts of India, say industry executives. While about 92 per cent
of urban areas are electrified, rural electrification is just
55 per cent. "People use gravity-based water purifiers in
regions that have poor or no electricity supply," says Sasidhar
Chidanamarri, Associate Director, Environment & Building Technologies
Practice at Frost & Sullivan, a consulting firm.
In the vacuum cleaner market, Eureka Forbes’ "Euroclean"
range of products have a market share of around 90 per cent. But
there has been a dip in revenues from vacuum cleaners recently
along with a marginal decline in market share. The segment accounted
for about 16 per cent of the company’s revenue in 2012/13.
Meanwhile, the company plans to scale up its international business. It already accounts for 40 per cent of its revenues with the acquisition of Lux International and going forward is expected to constitute about half of the topline. With the expansion, the company plans to launch a range of new home appliances products internationally. Indeed, the Lux buyout gives Eureka Forbes access to markets in 40 countries across Europe, Africa and Latin America.
The company has also been getting into new segments such as air
purifiers, fire extinguishers and security systems as an alternate
strategy – markets that are still fairly niche and also where
the company does not have a first mover advantage. The air purifier
market in India was estimated to be valued at $12.65 million in
2013, while the fire and safety equipment market was estimated
to be about $3.16 billion in 2013, according to research firm
TechSci Research.
However, despite the various challenges and competition for Eureka Forbes, Goklaney is confident that the company is on the right track. So is Shashank Sinha, the company’s Senior General Manager – Marketing, who says the company is now seeing traction in the air purification market as well. "It is just that we are not shouting from the rooftops about our growing business," he says.
And, for a company that depends heavily on its sales force and
franchise, the company realises the imperative of creating a leadership
pipeline. People like Shashank Sinha and Marzin R. Shroff, CEO
– Direct Sales, and Senior Vice President, Marketing, are being
groomed to eventually take over from Goklaney. "I am here
right now as a night watchman and they are here as opening bats
and ready to take on," he says.
But analysts feel that Eureka Forbes needs to take drastic steps
to take on competition. "Incremental things won’t help,"
says Sahni. "It’s our actions and deeds that tells you whether
we’re aggressive or not. But, we’re doing things at our pace.
We don’t want to push things to an extent that people stop enjoying
their work," says Goklaney.
(Published in Business Today.)
