Friday, December 07, 2007

Old Delhi

















Here are some interesting snapshots of Old Delhi on a grey, cold Sunday afternoon in winter. This is where the past exists both in its inspiring architecture and its way of life.

Sunday, November 25, 2007

Organised Retail in India- What will happen in 2010?

To say that the Indian market is hotting up would be an understatement. Every player has grand plans and it will be interesting to see the winners and losers. But the retail industry is generally a safe industry to be in. Amongst the leading 480 retailers in the world,94% made a profit in 2005.The average net profit margins were 4.2%(for the entire sample) and 4.5% for the profitable retailers. This gives hope for the Indian industry. But the real dampener today could be the astronomical realty rates. On the plus side again, retail, unlike product companies, is a tried and tested model and one could be profitable by adapting the elements of the model to the market.

But who is looking at what in the next five years?

Reliance, the big brother, is eyeing 100mn sq ft of space(Wal Mart had 490 mn sq ft in 2004) with 68 distribution centres and presence in 784 cities and 1600 small towns by 2011.The turnover - an eye popping 1,00,000 crores ($22.3 bn)!

Spencer’s has plans of 2000 stores and 6 mn sq ft of space by 2009.

Big Bazaar and Food Bazaar are looking at having 11.5mn sq ft of space and sales of Rs. 10,900 cr by 2010.

The other big ones like Bharti- WalMart and the Aditya Birla group follow a different PR strategy and are generally keeping their plans under wraps.

Subhiksha is another player which has grown rapidly and has the capability to scale up significantly.

There are other domestic emerging players like the Wadhawan group which have announced their aggressive intent through acquisitions.

Then there are Tesco and Carrefour closely eyeing the market.

However, the Indian market is big and has the capacity to accommodate about ten players with upwards of $2bn turnover(next four years) and some regional players. But the winner will be the ones who understand the customers and get their supply chain and people equations right.

Sunday, November 18, 2007

Biology and the 21st century

Suddenly ,Biology is taking centre stage amongst sciences. After Charles Darwin, Physics and Chemistry took over and provided the glamour in sciences.Einstein, Schrodinger, Madame Curie were the stars of the scientific world.

In 1953, Walter Crick and James Watson discovered DNA and that set off a chain of events with unimagined consequences. First the scientists could understand DNA,then they discovered that they could slice off parts of it and attach new parts and then genome was decoded.Over time they also found out that many diseases, physical differences and even behavioral traits can be explained by genetic variations.

Today, we stand on the threshold of the greatest era of biological research. Research into the brain, biotechnology and unraveling the details of human evolution are amongst the most exciting fields in science today.

Countries like the US are aware of this at a political decision a making level and they are taking measures to see that a top class biology Ph.D. earns more than any other professional.

India, as always ,will catch on the revolution when it is a tad too late.

The Size of the Retail Pie


There is justifiably a large degree of excitement about the Indian retail industry. I hope to throw some light on the way the industry is shaping up through this blog.

The India Opportunity:

Let us see it from two perspectives.

1.The penetration of the organized market in India is barely 4% in 2006.In the US, it is 80%.In Thailand it is 40% and in China which allowed organized retail only 20 years back it is 50%.Clearly, there is a lot of scope.

The growth in the market is being driven by:
a) Rising incomes (8%+ GDP growth, higher income households growing faster than other categories)
b) Demographic dividend (larger percentage of working and younger population)
c) Increase in the number of working women (now 26% in key cities)
d) Change in preferences to western style shopping due to media, travel and shortage of time

2.The size of the market is enormous.

India has been rated as the most attractive retail market in the world by A.T.Kearney in
2005 & 2006.This rating is based on more than 25 retail-specific and macro-economic variables.The total estimated retail market size in 2005-06 is $282 billion and the organized market was $12 billion. Out of this the food and grocery segment is $211 bn and the organized segment in this sector is $2bn.The total organised market is expected to reach a size of $40bn in 2011(27% CAGR) and $100 bn plus in 2015.

With the exception of biotechnology and possibly internet on a global scale, this is the largest opportunity anywhere in the world. To put it in perspective, the telecom sector in India is just about $10bn and the organized FMCG sector is $12 bn.

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