Welcome 2007!

IndiaRetailBiz wishes all its readers a vey happy and prosperous 2007!

IndiaRetailBiz thanks all its readers for their tremendous response,
which has resulted in this blog, on Indian Retail Industry, becoming
the fastest growing business blog on the web.

 

Vijay Mallya- The king of good times, gears up to open 25 Lounge Bars

Vijay Mallya, the king of good times, who is the owner of the Bangalore based UB group, is gearing up to join the retail bandwagon with an investment of up to 250 crore by opening about 25 lounge bar format retail stores in the year 2007.

These multi-branded merchandise stores will be named after the the group’s highly popular “Kingfisher” brand to leverage the Kingfisher brandname into retail space. Kingfisher is being presently used as the umbrella brand for selling the products like Beer, Soda, Water, and air line seats.

This is going to be the second attempt of the group at retail as it is already selling ‘Kingfisher Line’ of products in Bangalore. These products have been designed by fashion designer Manoviraj Khosla. The first of the retail stores under new format is also likely to be launched from Bangalore.

Targeted at the youth, the Kingfisher stores would sell fashion products and apparels including leisure wear, lounge wear and sports wear along with full-fledged lounge bar. The stores would retail international brands including Nike, Adidas, and Reebok, apart from selling soft liquor brands from its own portfolio and that of other companies. Retail consultant KSA Technopak is known to have prepared the new retail plan based on a market research study conducted by the firm a few months ago.

“Retailing is the easiest business to do, till the time you want to make money. Once you want any retail venture to make money, things change,” says analyst Susil Dungarwal. Cautioning against the glamour of the front end in retailing, he added: “Retailing is all about putting your back-end in place first, then look at the front end.”

US Shopping mall facts

Here are some funny facts about “shopping malls” in the US:

• There are 50,000 shopping malls in the United States alone.
• Women will buy more if they hear their heels clicking on polished hard surfaces, so designers often use hard flooring in hallways.
• Inside the stores themselves, there is often carpeting or softer surfaces to lure customers in and make them feel at home.
• Places to sit in the common areas of malls are hard to find. Because, people aren’t shopping when they’re sitting.
• Escalators are placed strategically to force shoppers to pass the maximum number of storefronts.
• Most malls have bends and turns as shoppers typically won’t walk towards something that seems more than one tenth of a mile away.
• Floor plans in malls are disorienting for a reason – so shoppers cannot make a quick exit.
• The average mall shopper stays for 80 minutes and spends $75 each visit.Source

Opus Fashions to set up exclusive retail outlets for lounge wear

Opus Fashions, which is known for its ethnic wear and which has established a niche in designing “lounge wear” for women under the “Maybell” brand, is considering to jump on the retail bandwagon by opening exclusive retail outlets across the country.

Presently, the company which has the capacity to manufacture up to 1000 garments per day, is selling most of its products through multi brand outlets (MBOs) and a few department stores in the southern region of India, particularly the cities of Chennai and Bangalore.

This change of track in the strategy has been triggered by the tremendous response the company has received for its line of lounge wear in the northern and western regions of the country as well as the potential it sees for direct retail after the entry of giants like Reliance and Bharati in the retail space of the country.

The company has engaged a team from NIFT (National Institute of Fashion Technology) to help design clothes.