From burgers to pizzas, sandwiches to parathas, the Indian fast food industry has it all. Craig Fonseca takes a look at this booming retail segment Fast food in India has come a long way from roadside
chaats and samosas. Today, fast food has taken on a
whole new meaning. Fast food today is synonymous with
large outlets, hygienic and standardised operations and
uniformed staff. Globalisation is....

One of the leading footwear manufacturers in the US announced that it had signed a retail licensing agreement with footwear retailer Shuz 4 U to open Skechers branded stores across Ireland. Shuz 4 U Ltd was established through a partnership between managing director Paul Gallagher and executive director Sunil Shah. The founders share over 50 combined years of experience in wholesale, distribution....

The catalogue retailer, Argos, owned by Home Retail Group, experienced a large drop in sales thanks to low consumer confidence and tough competition. The group reported that for the sales for Argos, Home Retails largest and most profitable business arm, Argos fell 8.1 per cent as business was hit greatly thanks to a drop in demand for video games and televisions.Television sales for the retailer ....

ASDA is looking to develop its own international brands and plans to sell them at Wal-Mart grocery chains all around the world. ASDA will also redesign its own label in the UK to improve its quality perception. The first categories to undergo a revamp will be beers, spirits, beverages, cereals, snacks and biscuits, to be followed by confectionary, canned foods, soft drinks, deserts and baking pro....

French supermarket chain Intermarch is doing its bit for the environmentaiming to achieve a 50 per cent reduction in electricity consumption. The chain plans to achieve this by switching to a new optimised acrylic sheet for the LED lighting systems used on its store signage. The new sheets from Altuglas International are being installed at 1,000 Intermarch outlets across France. The sheet provide....

UK grocery chain Tesco recently entered the secondhand market in computer games. Shoppers can sell their old electronic games to the supermarket which will resell them at a bargain price. Games for popular consoles like the Nintendo Wii and DSI, Sony Playstation or Microsofts Xbox will be accepted. The retailer will not pay cash to those who sell their old games. Instead, Tesco will give them a m....

Sams Club, Wal-Marts warehouse chain, has introduced eValues-a programme that aims to provide personalised offers for each member, depending on their previous shopping behaviour. The eValues programme is only available to members who pay a higher yearly membership than regular members. These members can view their offers through e-mail, the Sams Club website or kiosks placed inside the stores.Ind....

Amigo Sports has launched an official FIFA collection in India through an exclusive licensing agreement with Global Brands Group, the master licensee of FIFA merchandise worldwide. Under the agreement, Amigo Sports has exclusive rights to manufacturing, multichannel distribution and retail of official FIFA merchandise all across the country.Amigo Sports will set up official FIFA stores all across....

LG Electronics aims to expand its mobile business, announcing plans to open 100 exclusive mobile stores to increase the brands visibility. The mobile phone manufacturer is also aiming for an increase in market share from 5 per cent to 10 per cent by the end of 2010. The firm has also set a target to double its retail distribution network from 20,000 to 40,000 in India. Sudhin Mathur, Business Hea....

Reliance Retails expansion continues in India with the launch of the first Reliance Living outlet in Bangalore, its fifteenth such store in the country. The new store is spread over 15,000 square feet. Reliance Living has recently brought together all of Reliances home-related brands like Reliance Kitchen to market home living products and several new aspirational product lines. This move offers ....

Brands like Superman, Tom and Jerry, Mr Men and Little Miss, Batman and Noddy are all set to hit the Indian markets through merchandise like apparel, personal care products, food and beverages, etc. Dream Theatre, a Mumbai based entertainment company has acquired exclusive rights for Warner Brothers, Discovery Channel and Animal Planet, and will also acquire licensing rights to Miami Ink and Amer....

Planet Sports, the multi-brand sports and lifestyle chain, part of the Pantaloons Retail Chain, is moving forward with its expansion plans, announcing its latest store at Pune. The store will be spread over 4,000 square feet and will offer customers a wide range of international sports and lifestyle brands like Nike, Reebok, Puma, Speedo, Spalding and Prince. The store offers collections which ar....

Mother Dairy, one of Indias largest milk processors, plans to roll out a chain of retail stores to market its products all across India. The company plans to launch 350 exclusive stores, to be known as Gaurav Stores, in New Delhi and 200 retail outlets in Mumbai in its first phase. It will expand into other major metros later. The company already owns a network of booths in New Delhi which it use....

Optimising operations over the supply chain can be a daunting task. Puneet Kulraj shares a few simple solutions to the problem of unpredictable stock-outs Managing the supply chain of a distribution company, be it a consumer goods company, a retail chain or a spare parts distribution centre, is extremely challenging. Managers face frequent conflicts in handling the day-to-day decisions for the sup....

Knight Frank looks at the retail scenario in seven major Indian cities and analyses the market potential in these areas. In the first part of this report, we take a look at New Delhi and Mumbai At the beginning of the millenium, the annual growth
rate of the Indian economy was below 5 per cent. As a
result, private consumption expenditure and retail sales
clocked an annual average growth rate o....

As retailers strive to provide the best possible service, customer feedback becomes extremely important. Service Intelligence demonstrates how feedback programmes can be implemented to obtain the desired results Customer feedback is one of the most important parameters for determining the success of a company. In the retail industry, one question that is constantly thrown up is, can customer feedb....

The Indian mall is evolving. Abhilesh Babel and Deepak Hariharan discuss the challenges and opportunities in India's retail space The golden days of the booming Indian economy have
witnessed a parallel and correlated phenomenonthe
rise of malls across the country. In the last decade,
malls have been sprouting across the country, reflecting
a gradual shift from unorganised retail to more
organ....

Sachin Singhal reveals strategies to help retailers make the most of their online space When it comes to implementing a business idea in India, the retail business is the only format considered. In the past, visionaries focused on virtually anything that could be transformed into an earning opportunity. The recent trend towards e-commerce has retailers wondering whether or not they should embark u....

Business analytics can help retail organisations be more competitive and improve revenue. Sudipta K Sen elaborates ....

India's diverse retail space requires POS systems that can meet every need. Samba Moorthy, Senior General Manager, Sales Marketing, Epson, tells Craig Fonseca about the potential of a good POS system in retail and Epson's offering in this area Epson, a world leader in digital imaging and printing solutions, has specially designed a dot matrix printer to suit the Indian market, dubbed the Made for....

The introduction of barcode scanners certainly changed retail operations. Prakash Jethwa tells us more about this technology and what we can expect from it in the near future Managing inventory has seen a radical change since the first barcode scanners were first introduced. Barcode scanners have become a common device everywhere, be it a small outlet or a mega mall, these devices have changed the....