Category: News & Views

German retailer, Metro Cash & Carry is trying to extend credit facility to its customers, mostly Kiranas [local mom-pop grocery retailers] as they feel the heat of liquidity and credit crunch.

Metro has tied up with SKS Micro Finance in (more…)

Did you know that India occupies the top slot in Organized Retail shrinkage – Shoplifting and In-store theft. According to Data released by Checkpoint Systems Inc, a whopping 3.09% of retail merchandise is lost by theft. Mexican retailers follow India by loss of 1.68% of their merchandise.

Checkpoint has surveyed in various stores across different formats throughout India and (more…)

Janak has launched its wedding collection for bride and groom. The collection comprises of sherwanis starting from Rs 22,500 and sarees designed in a (more…)

In continuing our coverage on Retail Chains, we are today covering the Pharmacy / Medical Store Chain vertical.

The current pharmacy retail market size is estimated to be of US$ 4.5 billion and it is expected to grow to US$ 8.7 billion by 2010. Pharmacy retail is growing at the rate of 20-25 per cent annually. The organized pharmacy retail chain is dominated by 12-15 big players. There are more than 3500 organized retail pharmacy outlets in India and it is expected to grow to10,000 by the end of 2010.

The organized pharmacy retail market is dominated by big industrial houses like Ranbaxy’s (Fortis), Pantaloon (Tulsi), Reliance Retail’s (Reliance Health and Pharma) and Subhiksha as well as health care players like Apollo Hospitals Group’s (Apollo Pharmacy) , Medicine Shoppe , Zydus Cadilla’s (Dial for Health), Sagar Drugs & Pharmaceuticals’ (Planet Health), Morepan’s (Life Spring), Lifetime Healthcare’s (LifeKen), Global Healthline (98.4), Guardian Lifecare’s (Guardian Pharmacy), MedPlus to name a few.

Modes of Operation:

• Company Managed Stores – Company owned pharmacy outlets are owned and manage by company itself. Major pharmacy chains in India like Fortis, Apollo, Alchemist, Subhiksha and Dial for Health have their own pharmacy chains
• Franchisee – Medicine (more…)

The Pioneers of Indian Retail, Pantaloon has taken yet another first of its kind initiative in the Indian Retail Industry to understand and get closer its customers. Pantaloon Retail’s Big Bazaar is setting up Customer Advisory (more…)

Is the Global Economic crisis presenting an opportunity for Indian Retailers to develop products suitable for the conservative Indian consumer who is now looking at value for money ? Across the board, retailers expressed optimism in selling their Private Brand Labels.

Vishal Megamart has witnessed a surge in sales of private labels from 5-6% of total turnover to 17-18% in (more…)

Rosenthal launched Sheherazade collection of Tea and Dinner sets. This collection is inspired by Arabian Nights and the Tea Set costs (more…)

Future Group has already developed some Private Labels developed by its group company Future Brands that are promoted by the group’s retail stores and also being made available to other retailers. Future Brands already has some good brands in its portfolio,

• John Miller, Lombard, Bare, DJ&C, Buffalo and RIG in the Fashion and Appareal space
• Tasty Treat, (more…)