admin
September 23, 2003
Written By Devangshu Dutta
A Different Scale
It is a fact that, even with over US$ 6 billion (around Rs. 30,000 crores) of exports and around US$ 8 billion (more than Rs. 40,000 crores) of domestic market volumes, the ready-to-wear apparel industry in India is dominated by small-scale companies. Due to various policies, business environment and various other factors, Indian industry has grown up as a fragmented industry.
This has resulted a vast difference in the size of the Indian companies and the size of the international companies they serve – a difference that means that an average international customer buying from India is 50-times the size of their average Indian supplier. And the picture is obviously even more stark at the higher end of the scale – although there are no authentic or verifiable figures due to the private ownership of Indian export companies, if we assume that the largest Indian garment exporter has a turnover of around Rs. 500 crores, its largest potential customer (Wal-Mart) is 2,500 times larger than the largest Indian supplier!
Figure 1: Fundamental Supply Chain Change?
Thus, there is obviously a vast difference in the level of capability that an Indian exporter can have in comparison to their customer, purely on the basis of the size and the money they can spend. And in their small size they are seen at a competitive disadvantage globally. Industry watchers have been projecting that buying agents and small companies will either die out or evolve into niche players, as the nature of the global supply chain changes (see Figure 1). If that is the only possibility then surely the Indian industry is doomed since it is almost entirely small scale?
Business Opportunities Exist
I believe that the reality is different. If we watch the trends in the international markets, certainly there is consolidation with big companies becoming bigger – they are not just growing, but also buying over other companies or merging with them.
However, I also perceive another opposite fragmentation trend, in parallel. These big companies are going into regions and countries that are new for them. In these markets, the products that they need are different from their usual needs. Also, within their existing markets, customer segments are breaking down into newer, more specialised segments which need not just more of the regular product but specialised collections. This need for differentiation and fragmentation is an opportunity for smaller companies, including Indian companies, to exploit.
But in a fragmented business the business processes must be held together even better because you have shorter lead times, and smaller production runs. Processes and information must be streamlined from Day 1. Imagine the very real scenario of the fabric supplier in Salem (South India), the dye house near New Delhi, the sewing unit in Noida, the buying office in Hong Kong, the importer’s office in New York and the retailer somewhere else in the USA. If an order has to be processed in 60 days or less, with all these parties working together in their diverse locations, the information stream and working processes must be tied together also. Information Technology (IT), especially e-enablement has a very large part to play in this.
Major Business Issues
If we look at the difficulties traditionally faced in tying up the information in the fashion business, four basic issues come up: Processes are complex, the interdependent business partners are in different locations, they have diverse information platforms, and people and existing working systems are a barrier.
Figure 2: Simplified View of A Retailer’s Seasonal Calendar
Complexity is bound to occur: there are so many interdependent activities in any single style, and in a season a company handles several styles (sometimes hundreds). What’s more, when a season’s activities are being done, it is very likely that some activities of a previous season as well as some of the next season would also be happening side-by-side. These overlaps and interdependence obviously create complexity, often beyond what is humanly possible to plan and do. No wonder, there are problems of information gaps, incorrect planning, poor decisions, delays and losses.
At the same time People and Work Systems can differ also, including the following problems:
People can have different work objectives – for example, retail merchandisers may look for best moving product, while their sourcing colleagues may look for lowest cost, or Marketing may be more concerned about having the product on the shelves at the specified time, while Production may be mainly concerned with achieving the most efficiency.
People can have conflicting work objectives – such as price negotiation between buyer and supplier, or the typical relationship mould between them which is difficult to change to true “partnership”
Changing these is a must but is not easy, because of perceptions of certain information being related to power or status. There may also be the question that one might have “always done the same thing – and it works, so why change it”.
E-Enablement Provides a Solution
Internet-based technologies are providing a way around many of these problems. Since the underlying standards are widespread and inexpensive to use, they bring powerful solutions into the reach of even smaller companies. Web-based systems are typically accessible anywhere in the world, thus truly providing connectivity to globally-spread business partners.
However, if we look at software alone solving our problems, we are doomed to failure. While e-enabling our businesses we must look at the underlying difficulties and tackle them simultaneously. The problems above fall into three broad areas, as I identified in an earlier article: People, then Processes, and finally Technology. It is important that these three areas be identified and tackled in that order – most companies fail with technology as well as with process improvements because they start in the reverse order and tackle people issues last.
The business benefits include more time and effort spent on productive activities rather than chasing after information, shorter lead times, more sales and lower management and financial costs, all of which lead to better profits. And higher profit, of course, is something that all apparel businesses could use in these difficult times!
Figure 3: Benefits from E-Enablement
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admin
September 15, 2003
In Europe as also in the West, the two textile giants, India and China, are often referred to as the elephant and the dragon respectively – India is, usually, the heavier, slower but a more patient elephant while China is portrayed as the faster, fire-breathing and market-usurping dragon which can occasionally run into problems because of its inability to cope with smaller details.
China may have emerged as the textile and apparel superpower because of its low-cost mass production capability. Nevertheless, India has been the quiet player which has been working backstage and making inroads into the global markets. India hopes that its ancient tradition of handicrafts combined with modern technology will enable it to assert its position in the world’s markets even after 2004 when restrictions on the textile trade, in the form of quotas, are eliminated as the World Trade Center (WTO) regulations are enforced.
Even as they admit that they face a threat from China, many Indian exporters maintain that Indian textiles are best woven by hand rather than by machines. That, they argue, ensures their survival.
Representatives of India Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO), which organised the Tex-Styles India 2003 from February 28 to March 3 in Delhi, have been closely monitoring the breathtaking pace at which China’s textile and apparel industry has been making progress. They say that although India is the world’s second largest producer of textiles and apparel after China, India’s share of the overall global textiles market is only 2.8% and much smaller than that of China’s. India caters mainly to its large domestic market with more than a billion population.
However, India is a top global supplier of yarn accounting for 22% of the world’s trade in this commodity; it also accounts for 3.2% share of the global fabrics and meets 2.2% of the world’s apparel demand. Indeed, India produces everything from yarn to finished apparel.
Ambitious or just unrealistic?
India’s exports of textiles were hit during the last fiscal year ended March 31, 2002, and recorded an 11% drop to nearly $10.7 billion. However, India’s textile pundits are saying that exports will rise in the current fiscal year ended March 31, 2003, to the level of $13 billion. It has also set its sights on an ambitious goal of reaching $50 billion in the year 2010, which many critics describe as "unrealistic".
Unlike China, India thrives on catering to small volume requirements of buyers. This is true in the case of apparel and allied industries such as home furnishings where India can truly flex its muscles. This is particularly evident in the case of several Indian companies which supply small but highly specialised silk fabrics to Western countries, especially to the United States. Indeed, some Indians are even importing raw yarn for the manufacture of silk from China because, according to many Indian companies, the quality of Chinese silk yarn is superior to the Indian variety.
Many Indians, aware that they run the risk of not being able to compete against Pakistan and China in the international markets on grounds of cost effectiveness, weaker quality and designs, have begun to upgrade and modernise their production operations. A study prepared by McKinsey & Company under commission from the Indian Cotton Textiles Export Promotion Council also provided a forewarning of this future scenario.
Some suppliers, who run what are known as cottage industries, where traditional hand work is carried out, turned to other mechanised means of production because the traditional hand work has been turning out to be slower and more expensive. These suppliers have been using machines now and have discovered that they can, as a result, cut costs and pass down the benefit of low-cost supplies to the importers. Indeed, by using machines, such manufacturers have been able to supply not only upper-end buyers but the lower-end clientele as well.
Subcontinent hub
A business investment consultant in India, Devangshu Dutta,
suggests that when looking at India’s potential, one should
consider the growth of the subcontinent hub, taking into account
the combined forces of India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
Total apparel exports from the three places are estimated
to grow to more than US$15 billion by 2005 and US$25 billion
by 2010 from about US$12 billion in 2000.
Mr Dutta says a direct comparison between India and China would
be unfair as India grows with the subcontinent and the region
has good potential in the future. The subcontinent is also one
of the largest and fastest growing consumer markets.
There are plenty of opportunities for raw material manufacturers and machinery makers while import duties are being brought down, he says, adding that in the textile and apparel industry, foreign direct investment is on an upward trend with manufacturing as the focus area.
However, Mr Dutta says that in addition to the dominance of small-scale production, the industry does not have a clear leadership and a true supply chain integration. Supply bases are spread out over a large geographical region, while the use of technology, especially information technology, has been insufficient.
Moreover, the Indian government still has to deal with its excise and other duty or tax imbalances, and modify the labour law which makes removal of staff difficult for employers, who therefore refrain from expansion.
admin
June 18, 2003
Despite its disadvantages ( outlined in Insight into India: part I ), India presents several opportunities as well.
Opportunities for sourcing companies
As India’s basket of production increases, retailers, brands
and importers can explore specific opportunities suited to their
business. A single-point of advice to them would be to “go beyond
the obvious.” Whether you have sourced from India previously
or not, do not be limited to your past image of what the Indian
supply base can produce.
Prompt your suppliers to show you something new in terms of
product type, fabric developments etc during each meeting. The
structure of the Indian supply base will certainly offer you
the possibility of flexible and small production runs, and the
possibility of experimenting with new products
admin
June 17, 2003
The Indian textile sector has its roots going back several thousand years. After the industrial revolution in Europe, this sector in India also saw growth of an industrial complex. However, over the last 50 years the textile industry in India has shown a chequered performance.
Today the industry contributes around 14 per cent to industrial production in the country, is estimated to directly employ approximately 35 million people (in addition to the indirect employment in allied sectors), accounts for about 27 per cent of the country’s exports, and is, in sum, an important economic engine for the nation.
In part, the very diversity, scale and spread of the industry which has been its strength, has also been its weakness. Most people’s experiences and actions have included only part of the industry, rather than its whole. Thus, even government regulations and financial policies have never been able to adequately fulfil the widely varied needs of the different segments of the industry.
However, during the last 10 years, the industry’s actions, government policies as well as market events have begun to converge, providing several growth opportunities for the sector domestically as well as in the global market. As the MFA quota-regime draws to a close, India presents many opportunities for buyers, suppliers and investors to partner with its textile industry, and to profit from the partnership.
Vertical chain and variety of products
To begin with, the Indian industry is one of the few in the
world that is truly vertically integrated from raw material
to finished products. It covers fibre-production, spinning,
knitting and weaving, as well as apparel manufacture.
Among fibres, although cotton has the largest share (around 58 per cent of mill consumption), Indian industry has over the years steadily diversified its raw material base to include manmade fibres such as polyester, viscose, acrylic and polypropylene (accounting for around 39 per cent of raw material consumed), as well as other natural fibres (including silk, wool, linen). In fact, Indian companies have built global scale even in non-traditional areas (such as Reliance Industries in polyester, and the Aditya Birla group, which is the world’s largest producer of viscose fibre).
While accurate statistics for a comparable period don’t seem to be available to compare between Indian and China, India certainly has among the two second largest spinning capacities in the world. Also, this is continuing to grow and modernise – the current strength is at around 38 million spindles and 400,000 rotors. Through a steady stream of upgrading, this has emerged as a globally competitive supply base for yarn of various counts and qualities.
Fabrics have been a traditional area of strength, not just through millennia-old traditions of weaving, but through a series of industrialisation moves beginning in the late 1800s. The Indian weaving and knitting base today includes products as diverse as fine dress fabrics, shirting, worsted suiting, denim, fleece, jersey, flat/woollen knits, technical fabrics etc. Much of this diversification of fabric product base has occurred in the last 10-20 years as domestic consumption patterns have changed as well.
In apparel, far beyond the embroidered, beaded or sequinned dresses in women’s wear and bleeding madras shirts in men’s wear that so typified India’s image in the past, the country produces active sportswear, weatherproof outerwear, foundation garments, suits, socks, infant wear and a whole host of other products for all ages. Production of made-ups includes a wide variety of bed, bath and table linen, kitchen accessories, etc.
Competitive capabilities
Certainly, an abundant low cost labour base has been one of
Indian industry’s advantages. Various studies by consulting
firms such as Kurt Salmon Associates, Werner, Gherzi Textile
Organisation as well as other bodies have highlighted India’s
cost advantage, as well as the long-term sustainability of this
advantage.
What is more important is that, among this abundant workforce, the fabric or garment-making skill is very high as entire communities have participated in the trade and sustained and refined workmanship. In fact, workers in the Indian industry are often referred to as “kaarigar” (artisan or craftsman), even though recent trends of increasingly automated equipment have emphasised deskilling of the worker into an “operator”.
It is this existing needlecraft base that has enabled the Indian industry to retain its position as one of the key suppliers of apparel and textiles, and also add new products to its portfolio by rapidly learning the techniques.
In addition to this, Indian industry has consistently remained flexible in terms of production quantity and lead time. While typical production runs are governed by fabric colour minimums, India presents the possibility of producing quantities as low as to a few hundred pieces. This capability is especially critical in an unpredictable market where retailers and brands are looking to source ever-smaller quantities of product, increasingly closer to the season.
During recent years there has also been qualitative improvement in management assets. This is especially critical: as retailers and brands consolidate their businesses, they expect their suppliers to become more sophisticated and take on more roles that were previously done by the customer. Therefore, suppliers need to become more sophisticated in their management practices, processes and technology, which can only be built if the senior and middle management are well-educated and technically qualified.
So, building on top of the textile engineering base which began in the 50s, the 90s saw growth in “fashion management” studies, including marketing and merchandising, garment manufacturing technology, design management, fashion communications management etc.
Simultaneous growth of the organised branded market within India, as well as the entry of larger companies sourcing from India, has given these fashion management graduates the playing field on which to further hone their skills, and provide a pool of management talent to Indian as well as global companies like Gap, Nike, Reebok, Tesco, Next, Asda, Wal-Mart, Limited etc.
The policy environment that was unfavourable to large-scale manufacturing in the past has also created an unintended strength – a base of design, product development and merchandising capability.
Due to restrictions placed upon the size and composition of manufacturing capacity that could be invested in, from the 60s until the early-90s a number of companies grew their business solely on the basis of “merchant exports,” ie, trading. This business model needed strong marketing and merchandising capabilities, as well as an eye for design and skills in product development. Over time this has built up into a sustainable strength and competitive advantage of the Indian industry. Buyers also recognise this skill as a key element of sourcing from the Indian industry, as visible from the frenetic rate of new sampling that goes on every season in factories around India.
Geographic spread and concentrations
The size and diversity of the Indian industry becomes immediately
clear from listing the various geographical locations where
the industry exists and their skills-sets.
Yarn, fabric and apparel manufacturing takes place practically across the country. There are over 1,500 organised spinning units of significant scale, and over 280 composite mills that are vertically integrated from spinning to finished fabric. In addition, there are over a thousand smaller spinning units, around 200 exclusive weaving units and an estimated 375,000 “powerloom mills” which operate in the small-scale sector.
However, there are certain concentrations of skills and product type that have developed over the last 30 or so years.
Western India, including the states Gujarat and Maharashtra, have a number of spinning units as well as composite mills. Also in the west, the Surat belt is known for polyester fabrics, gaining from the proximity of large polyester yarn suppliers. Surat’s industry has been a fast-growing supply base for the domestic market and, starting with the Middle East, it has steadily grown its exports also.
The south, including the Salem-Erode belt, is a hub for cotton fabric. While it dramatically grew in the 1980s and 1990s as a belt of small-sized “unorganised” mills, many companies here have recently become more sophisticated in their technology and product development.
In the apparel sector, Ludhiana, Tirupur, Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai and Chennai are all remarkably unique and dynamic centres of production. For example, Tirupur in south India, formerly a small town, is today a stronghold of cotton knitwear with annual exports of a billion dollars. Ludhiana, in the prosperous northern state of Punjab, originally built its strengths in woollen knitwear through exports into the former Soviet Union. After a brief hiatus in the early 90s it regained its dynamism, and is now a supply hub for sweater knits to some of the largest fashion brands in the US and in Europe.
Delhi, the leading export centre for apparel in volume and value, leads also in design and merchandising skills, with smaller and flexible production quantities. Chennai (Madras), on the other hand, is more geared towards large and well-established factories producing large quantities of basic products, while Bangalore is growing in more engineered products including tailored clothing and foundation garments.
Obviously, this gross generalisation is only indicative of the relative strengths of the various locations, as individual companies with comparable or greater strengths do also exist outside these concentrations.
India as a regional sourcing hub
India is being seen by more and more customers as a hub, rather
than a stand-alone sourcing opportunity. Standing alone, India
exports about US$13 billion of textile and apparel products,
and this figure is slated to grow to over US$20 billion by 2005-06.
However, even more interesting is India’s position as a regional hub, including sourcing from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal. In apparel alone, India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka already export around US$12 billion to global markets, and are growing further.
Already companies such as H&M and Karstadt-Quelle manage their sourcing from these three countries together, with the regional headquarters based in New Delhi. Gap has taken it further, including its Middle East sourcing within this umbrella. Many others are following suit. The reasons for this are many and varied, including the fact that many companies in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and the Middle East (and even as far as South East Asia – including Indonesia and Thailand) actually employ Indian professionals in various management positions. Other than that, business and cultural linkages have existed in the past and provide a platform for regional business cooperation.
Certainly, India’s size as a potential market is an important factor in its role as a hub, and many of these companies are looking to grow their sourcing base in and around India as a precursor to selling within the Indian market.
Challenges faced in India
Before listing the opportunities that India presents for various
types of companies, it is wise to acknowledge the deficiencies
and problems as well. These can be broadly classified into three
heads: gaps in the industry, regulatory disadvantages and disadvantages
India faces as a country.
A major gap in Indian industry is its fragmented structure with a dominance of small scale. Even though the government policies that created this distortion have gradually been removed, their impact will still be felt for some time.
One of the greatest implications is that since most of the companies are small, there are very few clear examples of leadership and reference points that can be aspirational or inspirational for the rest of the industry. The ones that are – Arvind Mills, Reliance or Raymond – far exceed the scale of most of the industry players, and do not provide a clear “roadmap to growth” for the rest of the industry. Having said that, apparel exporters such as Ambattur Clothing, Shahi Exports and Gokaldas have grown in an entrepreneurial manner, and can be role models.
Small scale also brings with it the problem of productivity. Various authors and researchers have placed the current productivity of Indian factories at half to one-third of levels that might otherwise be achievable. Smaller companies often do not have the resources to invest in appropriate technology or retraining, or in the re-engineering of processes. While skilled Indian labour is inexpensive in absolute terms, due to lower productivity levels, much of this advantage is lost by small firms.
Fragmentation of the supply base also creates barriers to achieving true integration between the various links in the supply chain. This creates issues of lack of control and lack of consistent or reliable performance. The huge geographical spread further complicates this issue.
Among regulatory disadvantages, one of the most insidious is the historical reservation of manufacturing for very small companies. While the original political intention might have been to spread self-reliant industry across a large population base, this reservation has created the fragmentation that shackled the competitiveness of Indian industry. Most of the sectors have now been de-reserved, and entrepreneurs and corporates are investing significant sums of money in setting up new, large factories, or expanding their existing manufacturing plants.Secondly, the government has, in the past, also kept foreign investment out of textile and apparel manufacturing. It has gradually removed these restrictions, and has also brought down import duties on capital equipment, creating grounds for foreign investors to set up manufacturing plants competitively in India. In recent years, when India has started becoming a global manufacturing base for products such as cars (Ford, Hyundai), power backup systems (APC), chemicals (Clariant) and fast-moving consumer goods (Unilever), it can certainly provide a competitive base for textiles and apparel companies to invest in.
Some other problems remain, such as excise and other tax imbalances. The political diversity of India’s 35 states and Union Territories, and a coalition of ruling parties has led to slow progress in rationalising these imbalances due to debate and discussion. However, a VAT framework is being put in place, though in fits and starts, which will clear these imbalances once it is implemented fully, and create a truly unified economic space.
Labour laws are still seen to be relatively unfriendly to business, with companies having less than ideal flexibility to follow a “hire and fire” policy. To avoid any potential trouble with labour unionisation, companies have often broken their business down into small units, which have, in turn, lost the efficiencies of scale. In recent years, there has been movement towards labour reform, and it is hoped that this will make the business environment even more conducive.
Finally, there are certain macro-level disadvantages that India faces as a country. For one, it has a global logistics disadvantage due to its geographic location. Unlike its competitors Mexico (for the US), Turkey (for the EU), and China (for Japan and the US West Coast), India is distant from all the major markets. Therefore, the cost of shipping is high and shipping time adds to the disadvantage. Cost of shipping is also affected by the fact that inbound freight traffic has been low – therefore, container movement is not at its most cost-efficient. This is changing as India imports more products and inbound freight traffic increases.
India also lacks any serious trade pact memberships, and therefore does not receive preferential access to the major markets. This leads to quota and duty disadvantages, which depress the sourcing volumes from India far below their potential.
The second part of this article outlines the opportunities for sourcing companies, consumer brands, suppliers and investors to form profitable partnerships with the industry ( click here to read it ). .
This article is based on a presentation made at Interstoff-Asia Spring 2003. The author, Devangshu Dutta is a retail and fashion industry professional. He has had the chance to work with companies globally and across the entire supply chain from consumer back to raw material.admin
April 28, 2003
 |
For more
than four centuries now, Delhi’s Chandni Chowk has retained
its charm. Nothing quite matches its smells and sounds.
When French physician Francis Bernier visited India way
back in 1663, in Chandni Chowk he found shops selling
fruits from Kashgar in Afghanistan, gold and silk brocades
from Varanasi and Surat, jewellery and wine. He noticed
the kahva khanas – tea houses where the locals would gather
to sip the brew and talk about the events du jour. Bernier
labelled Chandni Chowk as the most important commercial
centre of the East. Its pre-eminence continued till the 1930s, when the colonnaded arcades of Connaught Circus stole Chandni Chowk’s lustre.And today, India’s oldest high street has lost a lot of its allure. Shoppers from all over the capital still throng the market, especially when a wedding is round the corner. |
Today, a similar story of rise and fall could well be playing out across India’s major high streets, which have dominated the retail sector for several decades. Their names are all too familiar: Pondy Bazaar, Nungambakkam, Mylapore, Anna Salai and Commercial Street in Chennai. Brigade Road and Indira Nagar in Bangalore. Linking Road, Colaba Causeway and Breach Candy in Mumbai. Connaught Place, South Extension and Karol Bagh in Delhi, and Park Street in Kolkata.
With each of their annual turnovers anywhere between Rs 500 crore and Rs 2,500 crore, these bustling high streets determine the fortunes of several Indian enterprises. Take just one – apparel brand Arrow. Its business head, Janak Dave, says: “Seventy per cent of Arrow’s sales come from just 15 high streets (outlets) in India.”
But now, questions are being raised whether the hegemony of high streets over Indian retail can continue. Glitzy malls are coming up by the dozen all over the country. Delhi already has Ansal Plaza. Seven more are expected to come up in the satellite township of Gurgaon, Haryana, alone. Ditto for Mumbai, and every other Indian metro. With their snazzy interiors, an offering that is a mix of shopping, entertainment and leisure, and facilities like parking and childcare, the malls are beginning to pull traffic away from high streets.
Two years ago, when Ansal Plaza, Delhi’s first mall, came up 2 km away from South Extension, most retailers wrote it off. Today, it is proving to be a formidable competitor to South Extension. Simran Singh, a Delhi-based retail consultant, says: “Today, the high street retailers are all feeling threatened (by the malls). They are wondering whether they should move to the malls.” Of course, no one quite believes that shoppers will simply desert retailers in high streets en masse. Even after being in business for a decade, departmental stores like Shoppers’ Stop, which are the anchor tenants for most malls and ostensibly the main draw, do not cater to more than 2% of a city’s population.
Quiet changes, however, are already taking place in the way generations of Indians have shopped. Today, we are much more comfortable with the quality that brands connote than with a shopkeeper’s word about the quality of a product. Besides, as cities grow outward and urban lifestyles become more hectic, more families now prefer to shop on weekends, preferably not too far away from home and away from the maddening crowds and even more madding parking attendants. Harminder Sahni, a principal at retail consultancy KSA Technopak, agrees: “The consumer is ready now for organised retail.” It is no surprise that malls are becoming popular with city folk.
So, will malls wean away more and more shoppers from high streets? To what extent will that affect business on high streets? How will high street retailers adapt themselves to the new challenge? And will the high street as we have known it, continue to look the same?
A Peek Into History
Some of the answers lie in the way high streets evolved in India. With the exception of Colaba Causeway and Connaught Place, the high streets in India were not even intended to be that. “They were local markets, which somehow became high streets as one marketer after another was attracted by the catch-ment’s profile,” says Devangshu Dutta, founder of Creatnet Services and a retail industry expert. It’s because of poor town planning that high streets formed by themselves, says Arvind Singhal, head of KSA Technopak. The unplanned growth resulted in unplanned marketplaces with an erratic mix of shops and the inevitable parking snarls.
Take South Extension. From a nest-like office above his shop, K.P. Malhotra has seen the market take its present shape. It began with little more than a few shops, all meeting the usual bouquet of suburban demands – dry-cleaning, small eateries, household provisions, tailoring, and so on. Back in 1967, Malhotra himself opened a superbazaar, selling household groceries, toys and medicines. That began to change in the 1970s, as people from adjoining suburbs – New Friends Colony, Defence Colony and Green Park – began flocking to South Extension to shop, even though they had their own community markets. The high street was forming.
According to Malhotra, the reason was simple. DLF, which was developing that part of Delhi, had constructed much larger shops (2,250 sq ft) than what the Delhi administration was making. This allowed the shopkeepers here to offer a bigger range. Moreover, the market was located on Ring Road, a prime thoroughfare. In tandem, these factors pulled in people who lived far beyond South Extension. And, seeing the numbers coming to the market, more and more retailers began setting up shop there. Jewellers and antique dealers came in, as did saree shops, shoe stores and garment outlets. In 1975, multibrand outlets were being set up. By 1988 or thereabouts, when the multinational brands began entering India, the first businesses in the market – the kirana shops, chemists and dry cleaners – were winding up. Their owners were realising there were better businesses – like multi-brand outlets (MBOs) – to be run. Malhotra himself forayed beyond household provisions into electrical goods, before eventually setting up an apparel MBO – Gopaljee.
|
By the mid-90s, the MBOs, too, were winding up. Companies were not happy with their performance. Says Rajendra Mohan, who runs Pall Mall, an apparel MBO in the market: “We pick and choose from a company’s entire range, sometimes stocking just one category.” That forced companies to scout for exclusive outlets. That is when the real estate prices on the street went sky high and the balance of power between the brand-owning company and the shop owner tilted all the way in favour of the latter. In the first few exclusive outlets that were set up,
the shop owner (or tenant) collected the stocks and
ran the store. But as the demand for real estate kept
increasing, the shop owners realised there was no pressure
on them to sell. All they had to do was ask for a minimum
guarantee, a sum of money to be paid to them every month
or year irrespective of how the outlet was doing, from
the company. If the company demanded higher sales, the
shop owner could switch loyalties, especially since
there were always some brands jostling to occupy that
same space. |
As more new brands continue to enter the market, the fight for real estate on the high street is getting desperate. For two years now, apparel brand Provogue has been scouting for space for an exclusive outlet in South Extension, without any luck. Provogue’s senior vice-president, Vishal Mirchandani, has assiduously chased every lead and come tantalisingly close to finalising a deal on four occasions. But each time, the talks broke down. These markets are very gossipy, he complains. Each of the four times he had finalised the deal with the shop owner, someone or the other found out what the terms were and offered the shop owner a sweeter deal that kept Provogue out.
But, ever since Ansal Plaza came up in late 1999, it has created a scare among the retailers in South Ex. Ask Malhotra, who also heads the Traders’ Association of South Extension (Part II), and he will tell you that the mega mall has not affected sales. But that’s partly because he also helps companies find property on the street. But, towards the end of the conversation, he said: “The market is crowded only on the weekends. It was not like this earlier. We used to get our bread and butter from this market. All we get these days is bread.”
Of course, South Ex is fighting back. Parking facilities are
being improved. Shopkeepers are also coming together to conduct
their sales at the same time. But that clearly is not enough.
South Extension (Part II) lacks an eatery like McDonald’s or
Pizza Hut. Malhotra and his team have been trying to get an
eatery into the market for a long time now, but to no avail.
McDonald’s was interested, but it baulked at the high rentals.
In a market where rentals are about Rs 250 per sq ft, it was
unwilling to go above Rs 100.
Forging a common strategy among a disparate bunch of shop owners
is not easy either, even for an old-timer like Malhotra. Most
shop owners tend to act in their own self-interest. And they
are not willing to settle for the lower rentals that McDonald’s
offers, even if it is in the interest of the entire market.
With all the shop owners pulling in different directions, getting
the retail mix right on high streets is another huge problem.
Or is it?
Skewed Economics
Consider Linking Road, Mumbai. When the first Shoppers’ Stop came up in Andheri, many felt that this high street in Bandra was doomed. But that proved to be greatly exaggerated – the street continues to flourish. In the years after the Shoppers’ Stop came up, the street has not died. If anything, it has expanded considerably. What has happened, though, is that the composition of the shops on the street has changed significantly. One, most of the multi-brand outlets have downed their shutters. Two, lots of exclusive (single brand) outlets have been set up. Three, the kiranas, chemists and dry cleaners left the street for the smaller streets running parallel to it. Again, because their owners realised that there were more profitable businesses to be run.
From his ColorPlus outlet, store manager Harshad Thakker has seen the market change. In 1993, he recalls, shirt brand Arrow set up the first exclusive showroom on the stretch. Then came Weekender, Benetton, Nike, Woodland, Adidas and ColorPlus. During that period, real estate prices were very low (Rs 200 per sq ft), which increased, reaching a peak of Rs 400 in 1995-96. The high street extended to the north after Titan, Arrow and Bata came in, followed by a Satguru’s, Tresorie and Nike. To the south, a cluster began developing around Blues Bizaar. Opposite that, a Lacoste outlet came up. Followed by a Lee. The other thing Linking Road is known for is footwear. All the big names are here – Woodland, Nike, Reebok, Adidas, Bata. MBOs like Metro, Regal, Lord’s, Scandal, Citywalk and MB have been here since 1997.
In other words, instead of widening the retail mix,
Linking Road homed in on two main categories: apparel and shoes.
You will not find bookshops or music shops on Linking Road.
It is only now that household furnishing shops have started
coming up.
Intrigued? Much of this is linked to the hard economics of high
street retailing and the returns that each retailer expects.
With current real estate costs on Linking Road at Rs 250-350
per sq ft, the only businesses with sufficient margins were
apparel and food.
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Both apparel and food brands compete fiercely to get on the high streets largely because of the sheer traffic that they pull in. Chetan Shah, the head of Pepe, adds: “Conversions on the high street are much higher.” As many as 75-80% of the people who walk into his store on Linking Road end up buying something or the other. But the rentals are now so high that even the apparel and food brands are finding it hard to stay profitable. On an average, says Ashok Mukhi, who runs 22 exclusive stores in Mumbai alone, “minimum guarantees on the street have gone up by 5-7% every year”. He attributes this to jumps in rentals and operating costs. Alternatively, he says, if a company does not want to offer minimum guarantees, they can give retailers a flat 40-45% margin. Comments Provogue’s Mirchandani: “The rates in these places are ridiculous. All the shopkeepers think they are sitting on a goldmine.” (Article continued below…) |
Take the market in M block in New Delhi’s Greater Kailash Part I. Here, every month, two outlets on an average succumb to the high rentals. Malhotra told Businessworld that a 3 ft by 3 ft shop in South Ex had been sold to a paanwallah for Rs 57 lakh!
Somehow, despite the wonky economics, companies still want to be on the high streets. Notes Prakash Nedungadi, president, Madura Garments: “A lot of people see a high-street outlet as quasi-advertising – and take money out of their ad budgets to make the case for these.” Especially new brands tend to look at a high street presence to boost visibility. But the crowd makes it harder for the established brands. Take Pepe. Shah laments how hard it is to find a high street store that can be viable. “Negotiations always involve lots of horse-trading with the owners. The ideal rent to sales ratio would be around 10%. But I doubt if anyone gets a rate like that on a high street.”
A Paradox On High Streets
Till now, when a company walked out of a high street, three others were queuing up to replace it. That will change now. KSA Technopak’s Singhal says: “While South Ex is four times as expensive. The turnover from these stores is not four times as high. It is probably twice as high. Earlier, companies had to be on the high street to get a good hit rate. Today, once the malls come up, it is likely that they will get that in the mall.” Agrees Madura Garments’ vice-president (marketing) Vasanth Kumar: “From our point of view, I can get three (shops) in malls for the price of one store on a high street.”
Margins for an exclusive store are already under pressure.
As the suburban malls enter the fray in Mumbai and Delhi, more
customers will stop travelling long distances for high-street
shopping. New customers will not come to the high street, says
Madura Garments’ Kumar. He adds: “They will go to the malls.
The best the high street stores can do is retain their existing
customers.”
So where does that leave the shops that were opened on high
streets?
The options are limited. Shoppers’ Stop CEO B.S. Nagesh says a new marketplace forms when a mall comes up close to a high street. With the neighbouring shops offering categories that complement the mall, not compete with it. This could be a category like jewellery. Vasant Nangia, the founder of jewellery chain Oyzterbay, says his outlet on Linking Road has been doing much better business since the Shoppers’ Stop came up on that street. He does not prefer a concessionaire stand inside the department store, as there is not enough space to showcase his entire range.
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How do independent shopkeepers fit into this larger marketplace? Well, Pall Mall’s Mohan is going upmarket with a vengeance. In the last three years, he says, “we have moved away from the regular brands to imported brands – Versace Sports, Calvin Klein, Zegna, Cerutti, Valentino.” He is focusing on one segment in menswear and going more upmarket than Shoppers’ Stop. But then, Pall Mall is able to fight back the threat from Ansal Plaza because he works out of a 6,000 sq ft shop. Most retailers are not that lucky – their shops are barely 1,000 sq ft, which limits the range they can offer, or the categories they can get into. What will they do? This is when things get interesting. |
When the retailers start casting about
for new businesses, they will find they live in paradoxical
times. While the high street is under threat, the retailers
themselves have much more freedom to choose what they want to
sell.
A Question Of Real Estate
The possible scenarios look interesting. On Linking Road, high
real estate costs allowed retailers of only two categories –
apparel and footwear – to survive. But real estate prices there
will fall as malls come up. So retailing other categories on
the high street will become viable businesses once again.
Take Brigade Road in Bangalore, for instance. The city has a very small retail market. And now, three malls are coming up in the city. When they do, they will draw away business from the high street. Real estate prices on Brigade Road are already falling, says Anurag Munshi, associate director (research), Jones Lang Lasalle, a real estate company. He expects prices to settle down to the same level as the malls.
In Mumbai and Delhi, retail prices will not fall as soon as new malls come up. Even so, the prices are heading south. There are two reasons for that. Not only is the supply increasing, demand, too, is falling. Companies like Provogue are already planning to concentrate on malls from now on. “We have outlets in almost all the major high streets now,” says Mirchandani. Madura Garments, too, is looking away from the high streets. Kumar plans to open his 2,000 sq ft exclusive outlets, Planet Fashion, in semi-commercial and residential areas. “We expect more business now to come out of the good residential areas,” he says.
In this scenario, a lot will depend on how well-to-do the immediate suburbs are. Take South Ex. It is bang on a prime thoroughfare like Ring Road, so traffic will stay high. Moreover, its local catchment comprises the moneyed class. Malhotra says: “The beauty of this market is that no one here questions the price. The people who shop here have tonnes of money – businessmen with black money, bureaucrats with bribe money.” On streets like this, it is viable for shopkeepers to follow Mohan’s cue and enter niche categories. He cited swimwear and sports goods as two likely categories. As malls force rents on high streets to fall, it might become possible for niche category stores to become profitable again.
But that will not be possible everywhere. Every high street cannot hope to sell Cerutti and Armani and Gucci. All of them do not have a clientele that is affluent enough to support a premium brand. That is when all the players who left the high streets earlier – the kirana stores, the dry cleaners – will come back. KSA Technopak’s Singhal says shop owners on high streets moved out their own businesses when they saw the kind of money they were foregoing by not renting out the spaces to exclusive outlets. As exclusive outlets scrambled for space on high streets, minimum guarantees, money the owner of the space would earn irrespective of the level of business, came about. Now, as the rates fall, the drugstores, bakeries and gift shops will probably come back . Even internationally, high streets have been through the same cycle. They have become more mass, with a tenant mix consisting of plenty of middle-of-the-line brands.
In other words, they will go mass. Just like Chandni
Chowk.
