Sapna Agarwal & Byravee Iyer, MINT Mumbai, 26 June 2012 Women love their shoes. The attachment defines leading ladies as varied as Imelda Marcos—widow of former Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos and star of her own soap opera—and Carrie Bradshaw, the narrative lead in Sex and the City, who famously has a thing for her Manolo Blahniks. Countless devotees of Jimmy Choo and Christian Louboutin are also testament to the passion. As for men, time was when there were two choices for the middle-class Indian male of all ages—(usually) Bata or (occasionally) the Chinese guy who made shoes to order. Over…
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Nandita Bose and Matthias Williams, Reuters Mumbai/New Delhi, 22 June 2012 Swedish retailer IKEA , the world's largest furniture maker, is opening up in India, marking a crucial step for the Indian government whose policy flip flops related to foreign investment have damaged market confidence. The company, known for huge stores selling flatpack furniture and accessories, said it would invest 1.5 billion euros ($1.9 billion) to open 25 stores in Asia's third-largest economy after initially balking at India's sourcing requirements. IKEA's plans, announced by the Indian government after a meeting between the company's CEO and India's trade minister in Russia,…
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Asit Ranjan Mishra, Vidhi Choudhary & Sapna Agarwal, MINT New Delhi, 22 June 2012 Swedish furniture retailer Ikea will invest as much as €1.5 billion (around Rs. 10,740 crore today) in India, chief executive Mikael Ohlsson told trade minister Anand Sharma, signalling an endorsement of the country by a high-profile investor, something that’s been rare of late. Sharma said in a government press release on Friday that Ikea will initially invest €600 million and subsequently an additional estimated €900 million “for initial establishment of 25 retail stores in a wholly owned subsidiary”. Ohlsson and Sharma met in St Petersburg, Russia…
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Sarah Jacob, The Economic Times Bangalore, 14 June 2012 Japanese conglomerate Suntory, known for its whiskies and beers, has picked up majority stake in a subsidiary of Mumbai-based Narang Group to enter India's non-alcoholic beverage market. Suntory Beverage and Food Asia, which manages the M&A strategy and administration of group companies of the ¥1,802.8-billion (approx Rs 1.3 lakh crore) Suntory Holdings in Southeast Asia, has bought 51% stake in Narang Connect. "The joint venture (Narang Connect is rechristened Suntory Narang) is focused on premium, healthy, coffee-based and carbonated beverages," Rahul Narang, founder and chairman of Narang Group, said. This is…
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Nandita Bose, Reuters Mumbai, 11 June 2012 India's largest supermarket operator, Future Group, is having a clearance sale: its financial service business and flagship clothing brand are gone, and more deals are in the pipeline. Six months after the government backtracked on plans to allow foreign retail giants such as Wal-Mart Stores and Carrefour to form joint ventures, cash-starved domestic chains are selling assets, shutting stores, and scaling back expansion plans. It seems improbable that retailers could be in such trouble in India. They have the world's second-largest population, increasingly affluent consumers, and limited competition. But things are tough for…
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