Raghavendra Kamath & Sharleen D'Souza, Business Standard Mumbai, December 22, 2012 Quality space and high street seem to sell even in a slow economy. While many malls in the country are going vacant and space supply surpassing demand in many cities, shortage of quality space and heavy demand from retailers for high-footfall areas have pushed up high-street rents by 58 per cent this year. Vittal Mallya Road in Bangalore, Colaba Causeway in Mumbai and Camac Street in Kolkata have seen a rise in rents of 58 per cent, 56 per cent and 33 per cent respectively, said a study from…
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Yassir A Pitalwalla, Meghna Maiti, Financial Chronicle Mumbai, December 10, 2012 McDonald’s outlets in south and west India are going for a changeover as Hardcastle Restaurants (HRPL), the master franchisee for west and south India operations is preparing for a reverse merger with its parent Westlife Development (WDL). With the changeover, HRPL aims to connect better with older customers and increase sales. “Fashions too change over time. To keep ourselves relevant we are reimaging the look of our restaurants by going in for softer lighting, more use of wood and more apt graphics. This whole new design has already been…
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Raghavendra Kamath, Business Standard Mumbai, November 19, 2012 His rivals and analysts may not agree, but Future group Founder and CEO Kishore Biyani insists that his mall concept, Central and discount chain Brand Factory, have become “the largest department store network” in the country. Central and Brand Factory, whose financials are integrated, posted a turnover of Rs 2,200 crore in FY 2012, while Raheja-owned department store chain Shoppers Stop posted sales of Rs 2,167 crore and Westside, the department store of Tata-owned Trent, posted a turnover of Rs 770 crore. “Both the formats are bigger in sales than all other…
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Priyanka Pani, The Hindu Businessline Mumbai, November 16, 2012 Mahesh Patel, owner of a departmental store in suburban Lokhandwala in Mumbai, is disappointed with the festival sales this year. Patel, who also trades in crackers, said there was a 20 per cent decline in sales this time. Several big box retailers such as Shoppers Stop, Pantaloons and Croma, which form some 6 per cent of the retail market (according to retail advisory firm Technopak), were reported to have witnessed a bumper sale. The rest 94 per cent feel that this festival season was the worst in the last four years.…
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Raghavendra Kamath & Shivani Shinde, Business Standard Mumbai, October 29, 2012 E-commerce sites are giving out home makeovers, wardrobe offers and free gift deliveries during the ongoing festive season to woo customers. Most of the sites offer additional products, other than discounts, to lure customers. For instance, ‘members only’ site fashionandyou.com will launch a 15-day ‘home makeover’ campaign, wherein three highest shoppers will get home improvement products costing between Rs 10,000 and Rs 50,000. The e-commerce site is running a month-long promotion called “Festival of indulgence” from October 16 to November 16, wherein the highest shopper can win a designer…
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