Prestige Kitchen Boutique Store Opens in Bangalore

TTK Prestige has announced the launch of Prestige Kitchen Boutique - an exclusive retail initiative that showcases a gamut of designer modular kitchens. Riding on the success of over 180 prestige smart kitchen retail outlets across 110 cities in India, prestige kitchen boutique is the second retail format that is being announced by the company.

The Prestige Kitchen Boutique is a complete, end to end kitchen solution store with an appealing ambiance & unique modular layout. Currently there are two stores in Bangalore situated at Koramangala & J P Nagar. The store is equipped with a full-fledged design studio that allows the customer to get a look & feel of each kitchen exclusively.

Prestige Kitchen Boutique also offers comprehensive choices of materials, styles, designs, accessories, hardware, electro-domestics and combinations, making every kitchen unique & one of its kind. Each kitchen is unique catering to the individual needs of the customers with efficient space management, styling, finishes, lifestyle and ergonomics best suiting the different needs of Indian kitchen. The prestige modular kitchen range is priced at around Rs 100,000 onwards.

The company plans to start exclusive kitchen boutiques at all major locations in the country beginning with the southern market. Each boutique will entail an investment to the tune of 50 lakhs & will operate on the franchise model like the prestige smart kitchens. All prestige kitchen boutiques will have a complete back end of designers, carpenters, plumbers, masons and electricians to ensure prompt and quick fulfillment of client's needs.

Pantaloon Retail Monthly Sales Report

Here is monthly sales report of India's Number One Retailer- Pantaloon Retail India Ltd.

Value Retailing which includes Food Bazaar, Big Bazaar contributed to the bulk of the sales followed by Lifestyle and Home Solutions verticals.

Madura Lifestyle to induct Italian Brands

Madura Lifestyle is planning for a high street retail fashion foray. It is reliably learnt that Madura is working on project code-named MLS to house super-premium luxury brands such as Canali and Ermenegildo Zenga into its mens lifestyle store.

These stores will be exclusive Mens Fashion stores and are likely to be 15,000 to 20,000 sft in size. Madura is in talks to occupy space in Oberoi Mall, Mumbai and Bangalore's Retail Destination for the super-rich, Vittal Mallya Road.

Madura was able to lure Tommy Hilfiger Bahmas head, George Santacruz who said,

We will have roughly 20 odd super-premium international brands across products in the store. Currently talks are on with several of these brands and it is not possible to comment on individual names till discussion concludes.

Madura is also in talks with several other Luxury retailers in Europe. Zenga and Canali are already operating in India through some five star hotel boutiques but are willing to go for a licensing deal at store level with Madura.

Megamart Value Retail on $100 Million Expansion

Arvind Brands has unveiled a mega expansion plan for value retail network - Megamart. The company intends to pump in $100 million.

The company opened its first store in Chennai spread over 45,000 sft and also houses a cafe coffee day outlet. It also offers easy utility payment counters. On the merchandise side, it has range of apparels and accessories including footwear, luggage, cosmetics and home furnishings at a discount.

The company which has 75 Megamart stores plans to add another 200 by 2010. Most of them will come in Tier-II and Tier-III cities as the company's survey expects most of the people residing in these areas will graduate to branded apparels. Each large format store will involve an outlay of Rs 8 - 12 crore.

Tanishq Jodhaa Akbar Collection + Expansion

Tanishq - jewelery retail unit of Titan Industries has set an ambitious goal to increase its sales by 50% to Rs 3,000 crore in the next financial year. To achieve this target, the company is expanding its retail presence by adding 7 more exclusive stores taking the total count to 110.

Tanishq is coming under intense competition from Rajesh Exports [owner of leading brands such as shubh and laabh] as the latter had aggressively invested in R&D and has fantastic product offerings for the Indian consumer. Tanishq, to set off competition has launched Jodhaa Akbar collection and managed to get lot of marketing hype. The collection is very pricey and suggested retail price is between Rs 25,000 to Rs 15 Lakhs.

Buoyed by the successful launch of Reliance Jewels @ Jaynagar in Bangalore, Nita Ambani is working hard on a master plan to compete with Tanishq and Rajesh Exports.

Pills in Mall's Clinic - Future Group

Future Group which has become very aggressive in retailing, plans to open Medical Clinics in shopping Malls. Recall, we had reported their plans to open GYMs with Health Clubs in their Central Malls across India.

These clinics will offer specialty medical consultation, perform small day care procedures, diagnostic facilities, skin therapy and have a pharmacy as well. They are proposed to occupy between 1,200 to 1,500 sft area.

Future Group has tied up with Global Hospitals for the proposed venture. Mr. KB [Kishore Biyani] said,

We are building a prototype for quick service health care clinics with Global Hospitals which will treat common aliments.These clinics will come up in shopping malls and Big Bazaar outlets. The healthcare retail venture will be kicked off shortly.

We have reliably learnt that Future Group will hold 51% in the venture. Future Group has unsuccessfully tried to tie-up with Manipal Hospitals for Health clinics retailing.

However, one question still remains unanswered - why would clinics be inside malls, as if we are least bothered about our health and wouldn't want to see a doctor when we are unwell ?

Tommy Bathwear + Swiss Junction + BIA Ladies Corporate Wear

Tommy Hilfiger launched its fall 2007 bath collection of towels in colors of white, red, navy, ivory, periwinkle, coca, etc. They are made from 100% cotton hygro, they are more absorbent and start from Rs 150 onwards.

SWISS Junction introduced Navigator Pro Swiss Military Hanowa. This is made of fine stainless steel electroplated with a durable black finish. It is scratch and water resistant, upto 100 meters. Suggested Retail Priced in India - Rs 22,000.

BIA introduced corporate wear for women. The collection consists of full shirts, trousers, skirts and kurtis. They are priced in the range of Rs 399 to Rs 1,500. BIA will now compete with Raymonds for Women's wardrobe supremacy.

Ecco launched Ecco Montreal in India at suggested retail price of Rs 17,000.

Future Group - Retail to Realty

Kishore Biyani's Future group which has largest number of retail formats and stores currently in India is exploring the option of collaborating with Real Estate Developers to SELL Ready-to-Move-in Apartments.

Future groups subsidiary company, Home Solutions Retail has floated a Joint Venture company - FH Residences with Kolkata based Realty Developer - Mr. Sumit Dabriwala. They will have a presence in Big Bazaar outlets across India. Infact, Jones Lang La Salle already has a shop-in-shop inside Big Bazaar, Kolkatta. The apartments is an all fitted ready to live apartment and a new brand is being worked out by the company to foray in the market.

FH Residences will approach developers in several cities to sell its apartments which would then be customized to suit the concept of ready to live-in apartment.

Apart from this FH Residences will venture into buying advertising spaces at Malls.

Koutons Retail goes Upper Class way

Koutons Retail India (Koutons) designs, manufactures and retails apparels. Its products are market under the 'Kouton' and 'Charlie Outlaw' brands through its exclusive brand outlets (EBOs) across India.

Koutons has bought 51% stake in Upper Class, a strong foothold in the ladies' apparel segment and is expected to compliment the existing brand portfolio of Koutons Retail viz. Koutons and Charlie Outlaw.

Upper Class, promoted by Rajesh Sachdeva and his wife, Amita, specialises in casual bottom wear for women. The Rs 25-crore company has been exporting apparel to leading brands in Europe such as Armand Thiery, Class, F Ferra, Alcorpe English.

Pantaloon - Future Brands to Market with Other Supermarkets

A quarter ago, our analyst had reported about Pantaloon / Future Brands' and Reliance Retails ambitions to market their own private labels with other supermarket and hypermarket retailers.

Future Brands has informed that they will launch 2 of their most successful private labels - Tasty Treats and Fresh'n'Pure. Tasty Treats is a quick snack like Fritolay and Fresh'n'Pure is a dairy brand and are two of the best performing brands in Big Bazaar and Food Bazaar.

Mr. Desai, CEO of Future Brands said,

We are currently working on several brands. However, within the foods segment we are almost set to launch our snacks brand Tasty Treat. We are also working on launching our staples and dairy brand, Fresh'n'Pure. These brands will be launched to other retailers by mid 2008.

Pantaloon's Future Brands tasted the success of these brands through its own retail formats and now want to stock them in other supermarkets and chains. The company has earmarked big budget to revamping and launching private labels. So from the Street's point of view, will big retailers now spin-off an FMCG subsidiary ;-)

Luxor ties up with Reliance TimeOut

Luxor Writing Instruments, manufacturers of popular pen brands such as Parker and Pilot in India have informed us that the company has tied up with Reliance TimeOut, a subsidiary of Reliance Retail. Luxor will setup World of Luxor shop-in-shop inside Reliance TimeOut stores. [The picture on your left is that of Reliance TimeOut store on Cunningham Road, Bangalore]

Luxor will setup a new manufacturing unit to cater to this demand involving a setup cost of Rs 40 crore. Ms Pooja Jain, Director of Luxor said,

With the new facility at Uttarkhand, which is likely to be operational early next year, the production capacity will go up from three million pens to four million pens a day.

Luxor also exports is products to over 75 countries. It is not very clear on what will happen to Luxor signature retail outlets and its ambitious expansion plans after tie-up with Reliance.

UCB + COCO + GN + Groggy Brand Launches

Here is the round up of the Brands that were introduced in the Indian retail market in the past week.

United Colors of Benetton unveiled its autumn-winter collection. The collection includes a variety of clothing for women, men and children and is widely available.

COCO Femme collection was launched in Bandra, Mumbai store. Starting at Rs 1001, the range has dresses, tops, pants etc to choose from.

Canadian apparel brand Groggy launched its Fall-winter collection for men and women. The collection includes tops, blazers, pants, coats, cargos and are priced upwards of Rs 750.

GN launched Bluetooth 2.0 headsets, Jabra BT 125 and BT 135. Weighs 14 gm and are priced upwards of Rs 1800.

PAL Zileri launched Concept N. 18 for men, an elegant yet sport fragrance compatible with casual style for Golfers. Priced upwards of Rs 1500.

Lite Bite to Compete with Jumbo King in Fast Foods

Lite Bite, a Fast Food Chain of restaurants / food courts from the Burman Family [Dabur group] is expected to go live very soon. Lite Bite has tied up with Jiggs Kalra and Zorzwar Kalra for the new venture. Lite Bite will be in competition with Mumbai based Jumbo King for a slice of the quick service restaurant market.

Mr. Amit Burman said,

Lite Bite aims to develop India's leading food court and chain restaurant firm, comprising both leading international as well as in-house concepts and brands. QSR is a promising restaurant concept and its combination with our goals is bound to create wider appeal.

Lite Bite also has another partner, Mr. Rohit Aggarwal. They plan to invest 200 crore in setting up 200 restaurants on PAN India basis. They will focus on having casual dining restaurants, fine dining restaurants and high-end catering services. The Kalras will complement with cuisine and format development expertise.

Mukesh inducts Raghu Pillai on Board

Mukesh Ambani has inducted Raghu Pillai, Sr. Retail Executive on the board of Reliance Retail the holding company for all the Retail subsidiaries. Raghu beat other contenders such as Biju Kurien, Harsh Bahadur and G.Sanker on his way to the Reliance Retail board.

Raghu joined Reliance Retail after a 10 month stint with Pantaloon Retail India Ltd. Currently Raghu's responsibilities include overseeing the roll out and operations of Hypermarkets, Automoties, Home Fresh and others. However, in future Raghu is likely to be on the board of 20-35 subsidiary companies of Reliance Retail.

Starbucks products at PVR Multiplexes.

Seattle, USA based, Starbucks which is facing some hurdles on its entry into India has licensed its products to PVR Multiplexes. Under the agreement, PVR is sourcing Starbucks products with longer shelf life, including cold coffee and mineral water, from Starbucks. Currently it is not brewing coffee and in future may do so once it gets regulatory approval for full fledged operations.

PVRs, GM Ranjan Sigh said,

The retailing of Starbucks products has already started on an experimental basis at three Multiplexes in Mumbai and Delhi. The arrangement is for sourcing products directly from the US.

In July 2007, it withdrew application from the FIPB after it failed to get approval for a standalone retail chain.

What we feel is Starbucks maybe in talks with Indian retailers to go on a partnership basis. It could be a PAN India retailer or Realty developer.