There's some speculation that salespeople in luxury stores are being asked to become more friendly, so as not to turn away and turn off potential customers. But I think it isn't just them. I think as the economy slows, possibly everyone might become less abrasive and nicer to each other - less business around so you don't want to turn off the spenders no matter how they're dressed - "a king dressed as a beggar" is a good simile. Actually that reminds me of a story someone told about 20 years ago about an Indian farmer walking into a car…
Delhaize and Unilever may not yet have felt the need to visit a relationship counseler, and of course, the jury's still out on who (if anyone) will actually win in their battle. For now, Unilever has lost shelf-space for around 300 of its brands at Delhaize stores. Delhaize may potentially lose some of the sales that those brands got for it, in case consumers want a specific brand rather than a private label or a substitute brand. The consumers lose not just in terms of their choice being reduced, but perhaps also in becoming confused about the specific value /…
Luxury has its ups and downs. Assuming that the economy will look up at some point of time in the near or distant future, luxury brands will shine again, even if they've muddied themselves slightly in the puddles of discounting. Public (and industry) memory is short, especially in fashion, where you might be as good/bad as your last collection. There are plenty of luxury brands which had once been pushed to the dustiest back shelves, that have come back into fashion in recent years. So I'm sure many of the brands will be forgiven their current trespasses. And, as a…
By VISHAL KRISHNA Businessworld 20 Feb. 2009 Lesser stock on display racks in your neighbourhood Subhiksha, and may have started going elsewhere instead. One fine day, you may have even noticed that the shop was shut. What happened was this: Chennai-based value retailer Subhiksha Trading Services, neck-deep in Rs 600 crore of debt (plus Rs 180 crore raised internally as shareholders’ funds) accumulated over the past three years, could not pay its vendors as all its earnings was going to service the debt. So, over the past six months, it temporarily shut all 1,600 of its outlets in 110 cities.…
About 7 months ago a spat occurred between the leading retail company in India Future Group and branded supplier Cadbury's, with respect to margins offered to the Future Group. (A friend described it as a Bollywood saga.) Future Group had also previously had run-ins with other suppliers including the likes of Pepsi. (The previous post is here.) Now there's a European film noire sequel in the making, in a battle between the Belgian retailer Delhaize and European FMCG big daddy Unilever. Delhaize has suspended purchases from Unilever as, according to Delhaize, Unilever is making "unacceptable demands" that the chain stock more…
Speciality Restaurants expanding into high-margin QSR and cloud kitchen spaces - @devangshu shared his perspective on the opportunities and realities of managing a diverse "house of brands" in the food service sector #India #strategy #diversification
Geopolitical friction has again sparked renewed concerns over inflation and rising input costs for FMCG companies as @itmeansjustice @whysnavi write. @devangshu commented.
