Vishal Krishna Businessworld, May 7, 2011 Billionaire NRI Micky Jagtiani, chairman of the $3.8-billion Dubai-based Landmark Group, has not forgotten his roots. Whenever he visits his corporate office in Bangalore, he is generally driven around in a Hyundai Accent — a sedan meant more for the aspiring manager than the multi-millionaire. This low-key businessman is reported to have said that he wants to open a small retail shop in India and retire. Actually, he now has quite a few retail shops in India. From a single retail outlet in Bahrain in 1973, Jagtiani’s retail empire comprising a host of brands…
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Businessworld, April 30, 2011 Vishal Krishna Remember those malls and shopping centres with those “space available” signs? Well, the signs have disappeared. In the first quarter of this year, Reliance Retail leased 78,000 sq. ft for a hypermarket in Kurla in Mumbai; Pantaloons India has just leased 20,000 sq. ft in Bangalore. It is not just the available space that’s disappearing: rentals are going up, too. “Yes, last year there were places available and rentals were low, but the base effect seems to have caught up,” says Devangshu Dutta, CEO of Third Eyesight in Delhi. After a slow 2009, better…
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REUTERS Mumbai April 28, 2011 Nandita Bose and Neha Singh McDonald's made its name serving up hamburgers fast, but it took the world's biggest hamburger chain four years to enter India -- without its signature dish. A number of fast-food and cafe chains -- Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts to name just two -- that are flocking to India would do well to take away lessons learned by established rivals such as McDonald's in navigating a market beset with obstacles. Industry experts say patience and flexibility in a country where dietary traditions rule may well define successful global restaurant brands in…
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Sarah Jacob & Pramugdha Mamgain, The Economic Times Bangalore/New Delhi, April 27, 2011 The world's largest clothing retailer Inditex entered India with its flagship brand Zara on a Friday in May last year and that day the South Delhi outlet recorded the largest single-day sale by an international retailer in the country. Less than a year later, Zara fever has gripped several retailers who are chasing shop space next to the Spanish brand's outlets to leverage on its ability to pull shoppers in herds. "Zara has nailed it," Natasha Chopra, who heads personal shopping services at Select Citywalk mall in…
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Raghavendra Kamath, Business Standard Mumbai, April 18, 2011 While middle-aged women are checking out products at the newly-opened gourmet section on the first floor, twenty somethings are waiting to try the designer pret by Lajjo C, whose collection is exclusively displayed at the revamped store of Tata-run Westside in the Kala Ghoda area in south Mumbai. "It's chic and happening", says Parakh Tale, checking out the cereal bar, that allows customers to make their own breakfast cereal mix. For Tale, a regular at the Westside's store, the store is different in many ways than in the past. The chain's flagship…
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