Writankar Mukherjee & Navneeta Nandan, Economic Times 24 August 2024 Quick-commerce operators such as Blinkit, Swiggy Instamart and Zepto are aggressively trying to lure away consumers from large ecommerce platforms like Amazon and Flipkart by matching their prices across groceries and fast-selling general merchandise, triggering a price war in the home delivery space. This is a departure from the earlier pricing strategy of quick-commerce players who typically charged 10-15% premium over average ecommerce marketplace prices for instant deliveries, industry executives said. The strategy now is to win consumers from large ecommerce at a time when urban shoppers increasingly prefer faster…
Ratna Bhushan, Economic Times New Delhi, 19 August 2024 Close to a dozen small to mid-sized global cafes and restaurant brands have either entered India in the past two quarters or are in talks with local players at a time when large global chains are seeing sharp decline in same store sales and growth. Mid-sized global chains are making investments even in a modest range of Rs. 20-30 crore to tap select cities and intend to keep store counts under about 30 to stay profitable on each store. This is in contrast to earlier times when cafes and chains entered…
Sagar Malviya & Faizan Haidar, Economic Times 19 August 2024, Mumbai/New Delhi About a dozen listed lifestyle, grocery retailers and quick-service restaurants (QSRs) reduced their employee count by nearly 26,000 in FY24, retreating from the hiring spree of the past two financial years after they slowed down store expansion rate amid weakening demand. According to their latest annual reports, the reduction was completely led by five retailers - Reliance Industries' retail arm, Titan, Raymond, Page and Spencers - which saw their combined workforce decline 17% or by 52,000 people. The staff count was across permanent and contractual employees and adjusted…
Faizan Haidar, Economic Times 10 Aug 2024, New Delhi Japanese apparel major Uniqlo's sales growth in India slipped by more than half to a still-strong 32% last fiscal year while its net profit expanded by 25%. The Indian unit of Asia's biggest clothing brand posted a net profit of โน85.1 crore for the year ended March 2024 with net revenues of โน824 crore, according to its latest filing with the Registrar of Companies (RoC). Uniqlo India had posted a profit of โน68.1 crore with sales of โน625 crore in the previous year. Its on-year revenue growth was 69% in FY23…
Manu Balachandran, Forbes India 9 August 2024 If it hadnโt been for a kind manager at Canara Bank in Malappuram district of Kerala, Shaju Thomas would have probably continued being a journalist. It was around 2005, and Thomas had wanted a loan of โน10 lakh from the bank, the only SME (small and medium enterprise) branch in his district, to keep his entrepreneurial venture going. The manager, impressed by the 26-year-oldโs perseverance, finally decided to take a gamble on him, even though his predecessor had thought otherwise. โIt was Godโs intervention,โ Thomas says about that time. โIf it werenโt for…
Geopolitical friction has again sparked renewed concerns over inflation and rising input costs for FMCG companies as @itmeansjustice @whysnavi write. @devangshu commented.
