Business Standard, New Delhi, October 18, 2010 Amit Ranjan Rai Five years ago, Woodland, the maker of outdoor shoes and apparel, with a flourishing business in the country’s metros, decided to test waters in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. It opened a store each in the retail high streets of Jaipur and Udaipur, both well-known, well-to-do cities. Woodland had much expectation. But the stores flopped — there just weren’t enough buyers — and had to shut. Woodland then decided to stay away from smaller cities for a couple of years. No more experiments, no more testing waters was the…
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MINT (A partner of the Wall Street Journal) Mumbai, 15 October 2010 Sapna Agarwal Indian beauty salon chains are looking to expand operations, offer cheaper services and increase the share of product sales in their earnings. Chains such as VLCC Healthcare Ltd and Kaya Skin Clinic are opening new outlets to meet growing demand for their services. Kaya, a chain of premium skin clinics owned by Marico Ltd, runs 81 outlets in India and nearly 20 overseas. At the beginning of 2010, it had announced a freeze on domestic expansion. International operations contribute 45-50% of its revenue. In the current…
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Written By Devangshu Dutta It is quite clear that retro is ‘in’. The movie business worldwide is full of sequels, prequels, re-releases and remakes. The music business is ringing up the cash registers with remixes and jukebox compilations. Star Wars and Sholay still have a fan following. Abba has leaped across three decades; Hindi film songs from 30-60 years ago have been given a skin-uplift by American hip-hop artists; while Pink Floyd is hot with Indian teens, along with Akon and Rihanna. As copyright restrictions are removed from the works of authors long gone, the market gets flooded with several…
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From RETAILER, Varun Jain September 2010 Vishal Retail is reeling under a debt of Rs 730cr; Subhiksha has already closed all their 1600 outlets; Wadhawan Retail's ambitious retail chain, Spinach, ran out of steam in this competitive retail scenario; and Raymond's Be: Home, a home furnishings retail format, is already a thing of past. These are a few examples of big retailers who could not able to sustain their retail businesses, while other players struggled successfully to be on the road to recovery. Let's do a reality check, as in what other players did right to be still in the…
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RETAILER, Vrinda Oberai September 2010 Initially, stocking additional merchandise was treated to be a tool for branding but nowadays the same has managed to become a source of additional revenue. Retail chains like Barista Lavaza, Costa Coffee and Gloria Jeans Coffees among others are witnessing an upswing when it comes to adding up to their sales by retailing a broad inventory of coffee equipments and related merchandise. Products on offer Some of the coffee equipments and other related merchandise that one can find at coffee outlets include plungers, thermos, coffee beans, mugs, coffee makers, jars, insulated and designer sippers. Thus,…
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