By Vishal Krishna BusinessWorld 10 October 2009 Indian shopping hotspots are sporting more and more golden arches these days. If McDonald’s is expanding like never before, not far away is KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken), though on a lesser scale. Their guests are young, their menus glocalised, their branding established, and their menus are no longer over-priced. After more than a decade in the highly fragmented quick service restaurant (QSR) segment — only 20 per cent of the Rs 10,000-crore segment is organised — McDonald’s and KFC are growing at a nippy 20-25 per cent, despite the slowdown. “In a recession,…
A few thoughts that I shared at the Sustainable Fashion Forum (Hong Kong, October 7, 2009): Most people want to fit in rather than stand apart from their peers, so pushing sustainable or responsible fashion will need time – just like the typical fashion cycle, the first thrust needs to be on the innovators and early adopters (both consumers and companies), before the majority of the market picks up the trend. We typically talk about the “triple-bottom line” – referring to the benefit to the business (profit), benefit to the environment and benefit to the community. However, I think most…
By Vishal Krishna BusinessWorld September 21, 2009 Normally, the performance of the market leader is a fair indicator of which way the wind is blowing in a sector. But there are always exceptions, and this is one such. According to data from JP Morgan, Pantaloon’s store sales have been on a steady rise since March this year (see ‘Scaling Heights’). Another big player in retail, Shoppers Stop, has also declared a profit of Rs 3 crore for the April-June 2009 quarter, after making a Rs 40-crore loss in 2008-09 fiscal. These signs of hope, however, stand starkly against overall consumption…
Geopolitical friction has again sparked renewed concerns over inflation and rising input costs for FMCG companies as @itmeansjustice @whysnavi write. @devangshu commented.
