By VISHAL KRISHNA Businessworld Issue Dated 30 June-06 July 2009 If you were hoping to see a Wal-Mart store in your locality soon, you may be disappointed. The government has made it clear that it is against the idea of 100 per cent Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in front-end multi-brand retailing. “The Congress government has come to power by supporting the farmer, the middleman in mandis and the kirana store. Now aiding modern retail will be the last thing on their mind,” says a Mumbai-based retail analyst, who did not want to be named. Even if front-end retail stays domestic,…
BHANU PANDE The Economic Times, DELHI, 22 June 2006 For a man from Dehradun who ran a family-owned bookstore called English Book Depot, it's been quite a journey to the point where his Book Café chain now has tie-ups with retailers like Café Coffee Day, Nirula's, Barista and Subway. Sandeep Dutt, who's effectively used co-branding and co-location strategic tie-ups to set up a 20-store book retail chain, says, "We are in the business of brewing knowledge." He's observed that there are many consumers - aged anywhere from 15 to 40 - whose need for leisure and a great place to…
When I am at the receiving end of expectations, business plans and such like, of companies that are looking to ride the current retail boom in India, one thing stands out, and scares me the most: the opening slides, paragraphs or pages that are devoted to the "opportunity presented by India's booming middle class and its rising income". In the previous part to this column ("The Case of the Missing Millions", 27 April 2006), we concluded that for most international companies looking at India, the potential target market was in the region of 18-19 million people, or over 3 million…
By Devangshu Dutta (Coulmn in The Financial Express on 18 May 2006) When I am at the receiving end of expectations, business plans and such like, of companies that are looking to ride the current retail boom in India, one thing stands out, and scares me the most: the opening slides, paragraphs or pages that are devoted to the "opportunity presented by India's booming middle class and its rising income". In the previous part to this column ("The Case of the Missing Millions", 27 April 2006), we concluded that for most international companies looking at India, the potential target market…
With the possibility of 51% foreign direct investment (FDI) in India opened up to foreign retailers, one of the questions arising frequently is whether this means the death (or at least a slow-down) of franchising in India. After all franchising, in most people's mind, has these alternate images of unscrupulous franchisers ripping-off the life-savings of the small retailer on the one hand, and shady landlords in the guise of retail franchisees gouging at the pockets honest businessmen who are trying to build national brands. There also haven't been too many sustained success models in India where both franchiser and franchisees…
Geopolitical friction has again sparked renewed concerns over inflation and rising input costs for FMCG companies as @itmeansjustice @whysnavi write. @devangshu commented.
