Ms Sayali Bhagat, 23-year-old Miss India World 2004 launched first vegetarian outlet in Ahmedabad on August 5 “Club City” , a multi-speciality food court with Dosa Plaza, Shanghai Post, Masa Country, Chowpatty Chat, Chillzz and Barnies Coffee & Tea Co. This club-like ambience will give customers mouth watering cuisines an affordable price with lot of fund activities and an ecstatic aura.

The Club City is running successfully outlets in 18 Indian cities such as  Goa, Mumbai, Karnal, Hyderabad, Delhi, Lucknow, Baroda, Kolkatta, Sirsa and Bhubaneswar at present.

Dosa Plaza is  the fastest growing South Indian cuisine court with world’s largest menu and exotic fusion fillings which includes 27 trademarked dosas. Shanghai Post itself suggests the flavour of yummy Chines food like Shanghai Veggie, Shanghai Garden, Honey Chilly Potato, Crispy Noodles. Masala Country offers an arry of delicacies of vegetarian kebabs and speciality curries from all over India like Methi Malai Mutter, Paneer Fruit Kabab and Aloo Vindaloo. Club Chowpatty as the name itself reminds a “Khatti Meethi Duniya” of Chowpatty where everyone would love to visit.

During the launching of Club City outlet, among others, Mr Jagdish Khorwal, CEO Club City Hospitality, Mr Ajay Kakkad, owner and franchisee of Club City Ahmedabad, Sachin Marya, CEO Franchise India Holdings Ltd, Ashita Marya, National Head, Franchise India Holdings Ltd were present.

The philosophy of Sayali Bhagat, Bollywood actress is: “Life is like an ice cream and I want to enjoy every bit of it before it starts to melt”.

Club City is India’s leading food court chain, is offering an ultimate Fun dining experience to its customers. Club City with its 15 brands offers specialties that range from South Indian, vegetarian, non-vegetarian, pizzas, desserts, salad, Thai, Mexican and Chinese cuisine. The brand strongly believes in maintaining a courteous and righteous relationship with its people be it staff, suppliers or customers.

Spectrum Jewellery Pvt. Ltd, a Joint venture between Gitanjali Group and Sanghvi Exports, has partnered with Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) to create an exclusive opportunity for their customers to adorn themselves with gold and diamonds from the exclusive Sangini jewellery outlet at HPCL.

Film actor Tanushree Dutta, Dharmesh Bothra - COO, Gitanjali Group, Mehul Modh - CEO, Spectrum Jewellery Pvt. Ltd and SP Chodhury  - Executive Director – Retail, HPCL inaugurated the first-of-its-kind convenience store at HPCL pump, SV Road and Turner Road Junction, Bandra (W), in Mumbai. The showroom spread across 1,500 square feet features designs under the brand name of Sangini.

The new store will also embark on a novel initiative – The Heritage Value Program. This will entitle the customers to participate in a programme whereby they will be entitled to get back the full value of their purchase of diamond Jewellery after a time period of 18 years. A purchase of Sangini Jewellery worth Rs 20,000 in a single instance or via a series of smaller purchases will qualify the customer for membership into the programme. This will be applicable for all future purchases the customer will make at any Sangini outlet across India. If the customer/s opts to have an early exit, he/she may do so after 12 years and in this case they will get 50 per cent of their purchase value back after 12 years.

“This agreement with Hindustan Petroleum has allowed Gitanjali Group to expand its retail foray, making jewellery shopping a convenient experience. The opening of the first Sangini-HPCL convenience store in Mumbai is another step towards providing our customers with a jewellery array at their disposal,” said Mehul Choksi, chairman, Gitanjali Gems.

With the opening of the convenience store, the Gitanjali Group continues its thrust growth into retail jewellery business by rolling out multiple brands and retail formats meeting different scale of economies across India.

Sangini was one of the flagship brands launched in India by Diamond Trading Company (DTC). It entered the market in 2004, and was run by seven sightholders till 2005. It has since been taken over by Spectrum Jewellery.

With two coastal refineries, an extensive infrastructure including cross-country pipelines, depots, terminals and bottling points, and a network of more than 7,500 retail outlets all over the country, HPCL has been meeting the energy needs of millions of Indian consumers for over 30 years. During the year 2006-07, HPCL recorded a turnover of more than Rs 90,000 crore and is classified as one of the Fortune 500 companies.

The board of directors of REI Agro Ltd, India’s leading producer and exporter of basmati rice today approved a scheme of demerger of the  retail division to a new entity named “REI Six Ten Retail Limited”.

The scheme envisages the transfer of the assets and liabilities of the retail vertical to REI Six Ten Retail Limited. The appointed date for the demerger has been fixed as August 25, 2007.

As per the scheme of arrangement  approved by the the Board of Directors the shareholders will get  9 equity shares of REI Six Ten Retail Limited of face value of  Rs. 10 each and 12 shares of REI Agro Ltd itself  for every 20 equity share(Rs 10 face value each) held  in REI Agro Limited..  REI Six Ten Retail Limited will also allot 70 Lac equity share to REI Agro Limited.

The capital of REI Agro Limited will be restructured by cancelling Rs. 4 from each paid up equity share of Rs. 10 each and thereafter consolidating 5 equity shares of Rs. 6 each into 3 equity shares of Rs. 10 each.  With this restructuring  the retail division has been valued at Rs 28.52 crores.

Reflecting on the announcement, MrSundip Jhunjhunwala, Vice-Chairman and Managing Director of REI Agro Limited said, “The demerger is aimed at enhancing shareholder value. We believe that the retail division has immense  hidden value  which can be unlocked by de-merging  it into a separate entity . India is on the throes of retail revolution and REI Six Ten with its chain of 35  popular  Six Ten convenience stores in the NCR region  and further expansion plans in Chandigarh , Mohali and Panchkula is well poised to reap the benefits . This move besides creating shareholder value will bring increased focus and thrust into the retail business in terms of independent capital raising ability, better operating margins and quick scalability.”

The capital of  RSTRL(REI Six Ten retail Ltd) post demerger will be Rs. 28.58 crores (including Rs. 7 crores held by REI Agro Limited) and Rs. 28.77 crores of REI Agro Ltd. The advisors to the demerger exercise were ARSK Associates, Chartered Accountants and Khaitan and Company, Solicitors and Advocates for the demerger.

Bharti Enterprises and Wal-Mart Stores, Inc, signed an agreement on August 6 to establish Bharti-Wal-Mart Private Ltd, a joint venture for wholesale cash-and-carry and back –end supply chain management operations in India, in line with Government of India guidelines. Under the agreement, Bharti and Wal-Mart will hold 50:50 stakes in Bharti Wal-Mart Pvt Ltd,

The new company would open 15 stores in the north Indian states in the next 5 to 7 years. The first such stores would be operational in the first quarter of 2008.

Addressing the Press Conference, Mr Rajan Bharti Mittal, MD Bharti Enterprises said “Creating a strong back-end infrastructure will be one of the critical components in the development of modern retailing in India. This partnership is committed to bringing in world-class processes and technologies in the area of supply chain, logistics and cold chain that will be bring immense value to retailers, both big and small, across the country and ultimately benefit the entire retail ecosystem through better quality, and more choice at better prices.

On behalf of Wal Mart, Mike Duke, Vice Chairman said , “we will help drive efficiencies across the supply chain and work towards the betterment of India’s farmers, small manufactuerers and retailers, in line with our global vision of saving people money so they can live better.”

The first wholesale cash-and-carry facility is targeted to open by the end of next year. Over the next seven years, the venture is expected to open 10 to 15 wholesale cash-and-carry facilities and employ approximately 5000. A typical facility will stand between 50,000 and 100,000 square feet and sell a wide range of fruits and vegetables, groceries and staples, stationery, footwear, clothing, consumer durable and other general merchandise items.

Bharti Wal-Mart private ltd will bring modern supply chain and back-end logistics expertise to India, bringing Wal-Mart’s global best practices in such areas as just in time inventory, retail information systems, and cold chain infrastructure, GPS for truck and trailer tracking and fuel management system.

In additional Bharti Enterprises 100 per cent subsidiary Bharti Retail that will own and manage the retail stores, has entered into a franchise agreement with Wal-Mart which will provide technical support to Bharti Retail.

Wholesale cash-and-carry operations provide small retailers and business owners a wide range of quality products at competitive wholesale prices that help them enhance their businesses and profitability. The Bharti Wal-Mart B2B whole cash-and carry joint venture will serve kirana stores, fruit and vegetable resellers, restaurants and other business owners. It also will serve other retailers such as Bharti Retail, which is setting up a chain of stores in India that are 100 per cent owned and operated by Bharti.

Steve & Barry’s, one of the fastest-growing retail chains in the US, is planning to set up shops in India and China.

Sources said Steve & Barry’s had started putting in place a blueprint for the foray, with an initial investment of Rs 500 crore, which is likely to be scaled up to Rs 2,000 crore.

Avirat Sonpal, managing director, Unisource Group, and vice-president, Steve & Barry’s, said: “Our feasibility studies are under way, but we have no firm plans to enter India and China yet.’’ The company is looking at forming a core team that will focus on India and China. The first store is expected to be operational by late 2008 or early 2009.

Interestingly, Unisource Group, the global procurement and solutions affiliate for Steve & Barry’s retail brand, Steve & Barry’s University Sportswear, has its headquarters in Mumbai and has been functional for the last six years in the country. Unisource procured nearly 25 per cent of its products, mainly knit and woven, from India and this could give significant synergies for the US retailer once it set up shops in the country, the sources said.

“The Indian retail industry is extremely robust and is currently on a growth stage. The number of Indian companies investing in the industry and the attention it is receiving from foreign investors are the proof. However, FDI regulations are still not clear,” said Sonpal.

Started by childhood friends Steve and Barry to sell screen-printing T-shirts for $1 at flea markets across Long Island and New Jersey, Steve & Barry’s currently has about 220 stores and is looking at adding 70 more this financial year. Typically, a Steve & Barry’s store ranges from 50,000 to 100,000 sq ft. Perceived as a value-for-money brand, the prime focus of this brand is the youth.

Started in 2001, Unisource Group, looks after the support, supply chain and retail operation solutions of its affiliate brand. It sources nearly 25 per cent of its products from India, 20 per cent from China and the rest from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

According to consultancy firm KSA Technopak, the retail apparel market is Rs 1 lakh crore and the organised retail market is 20 per cent of that. The major international apparel and accessory retailers who have entered Indian market include Diesel, Tommy Hilfiger, Esprit, Louis Vuitton, FCUK, Lee Cooper, Escada and Dunhill, which have either entered through the franchise route or under the single-brand retailing route.

Planet Retail Holdings, a 51:49 joint venture between Indonesian NRI Mr Sharma and Mr Biyani, will launch UK’s upmarket multi-brand department store, Debenhams, in September in Gurgaon. It will house the store’s own brands as well as premium brands Clinque, MAC, Lancôme and Dior.

Planet Retail’s other franchisee brands in India are Marks & Spencer, Guess, Next, Accessorize, Replace and The Body Shop. However, Mr Sharma and Mr Biyani had plans to bring Starbucks into the country through a separate company called New Horizons.

The row over franchisee operations violating FDI norms was sparked off after the department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP) circulated a draft on the need to regulate entry of foreign brands through this route. In view of the stiff opposition to any curbs on franchisees from various departments of the government and industry, no decision has been taken on the issue.

Subsequently, officials are saying that the proposed restrictions would apply only to the service sector and cover areas where clear norms are not specified. Since Starbucks and Tesco have announced that they are postponing their India plans, after the franchisee issue flared up, the issue has come to the notice of finance minister P Chidambaram and commerce & industry minister Kamal Nath as well.

However, some foreign brands are going ahead with their plans. Spread across 35,000 sq ft, Debenhams will house women, men and children’s fashion accessories, lingerie, fashion footwear, premium cosmetics and fragrances. Known for its wide portfolio of private labels, international brands and designer label, Debenhams will tailor the range according to the preferences of the local market.

“Debenhams will store 50 brands including some popular British Designers like John Rocha, Betty Jackson, Nigel Cabourn and other private labels like Red Herring, Maine and Thomas Nash. Besides these, it will also have some premium international brands such as Clinique, MAC and Lancome,’’ Planet Retail COO Sameer Prasad said.

Godrej Agrovet Ltd, the retailing unit of Godrej Group, plans to open 100 agri-retail outlets under its ‘Aadhar’ brand in four states in the next one year. “We will be launching another 100 retail stores in Punjab, Gujarat, Haryana and Maharashtra,” Godrej Agrovet general manager Videep Singh said. Godrej already has 47 stores in these states and would like to have more retail outlets in the same states, as logistically it would be easier, economical, he said.

Mumbai-based ophthalmic, optics and instrumentation company, Lawrence & Mayo Opticals (L&M), is planning to expand its dispensing network across the country.

The company would open 20 stores over the next two to three years, each entailing an investment of around Rs 75 lakh.

“Our focus this year would be on further consolidating our presence by opening four to five more stores in the existing locations, before moving on to tier-II cities like Salem, Kozhikode, Bhubaneswar, Surat and Madurai from next year in a phased manner,” Amitava Mendonca, marketing director of L&M, said.

The 130-year-old company with 43 stores in 17 cities including six in Hyderabad, clocked revenues of Rs 104 crore during the last financial year, with 70 percent of it coming from the opticals business.

The Indian optical market, both organised and unorganised, is currently pegged at around Rs 2,000 crore. L&M commands around 15 percent market share in the organised sector, according to him.

Arvind Murjani Brands, which sells Tommy Hilfiger products in the country, plans to open 11 more exclusive outlets within the next six months to meet the rising demand for branded garments.

"We have nine exclusive outlets in seven cities now. We plan to open 11 more this year, making our presence in nine cities by the end of December," Shailesh Chaturvedi, CEO, Tommy Hilfiger Apparel India said.

Although he declined to give the total investment the company plans to make in India, Chaturvedi said it usually takes Rs 1-2 crore to put up an exclusive store.

He said the company would open an exclusive store in Ahmedabad this month, while an outlet in Pune would be launched within two months.

Chaturvedi said the company had no plan to go to Tier-II and Tier-III cities since it would not make much business sense at the moment.

"We will concentrate on top ten cities like, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Delhi and Mumbai."

The company, Chaturvedi said, will have a large retail store in Delhi, but in Mumbai it would like to increase its footprint in multiple locations.

"We have two stores now in Mumbai. We plan to have six stores by the end of the year," he said.

Taking realty major DLF head-on, Emaar MGF is planning to build India's largest mall, the announcement for which will be made in the next six months. Currently on the drawing boards, the mall will ape the world's largest mall (spread over 5.8 million sq. ft.) being built by the company’s partner (Emaar) in Dubai. Till date, the largest mall to be announced in India is DLF's Mall of India along NH-8 in Gurgaon that will be spread over 3.6 million sq. ft.

“The mall will have the same flavour as the Dubai Mall that has 3.77 million sq. ft. of retail space as well as the largest walk through aquarium in the world. The mall in India is in the planning stages and we will be making it public in the next couple of months,” says Shravan Gupta, executive vice-chairman and managing director, Emaar MGF. With 65-70 percent of Emaar MGF’s land bank in the north, the upcoming mall is likely to be built in the Delhi NCR.

Inspired by the scale of projects that its UAE-based partner Emaar is engaged in executing (like the Dubai Mall and the tallest tower in the world, called the Burj Dubai), Emaar MGF is also planning to come up with similar such real estate projects in India in the coming years. The first such project is Boulder Hills, a residential-cum-leisure complex at Hyderabad, which will have the largest golf course in India.

10 May: CARBON , the fashion jewellery and lifestyle accessories brand, is gearing up to make waves in the Indian fashion accessories market. Having introduced the concept of branded jewellery in India a decade ago, Carbon is all set to expand nationwide through a network of 40 exclusive brand outlets (EBOs) by the end of 2008. The Bangalore-based company, whose products cater predominantly to the women's fashion accessories segment , is also looking to tap the men's accessories segment in a big way.

"The firm plans to expand its retail presence with exclusive stores across the country. The brand has to develop this channel of distribution because it is in exclusive boutiques that the brand is seen in its true glory, where brand identity and imagery can be conveyed a lot better to customers," said Mr Mahesh S Rao, managing director, Carbon Accessories . The company is also eyeing the franchisee route to expand. With the Indian retail scene undergoing a rapid transformation, designers the world over are betting big on Indian branded jewellery, which has the potential to rake in big money. Carbon Accessories recently roped in fashion designer Sanchita Ajjampur, who's label Sanchita for Carbon (an exclusive signature range), according to Mr Rao, would give the company the necessary thrust to take the brand global.

"The strategy is to build a brand of international repute, while still on Indian shores, before we target exports. A fashion brand needs to innovate constantly . Having outsourced the manufacturing of our products, we can now focus our energies on designing products ," he said. The brand which started off with limited distribution and retail through shop-in-shop outlets in large format stores, is present in eight exclusive boutiques today. Carbon, available in 12 exclusive collections, sells over 20,000 accessories annually.

10 May: Women in Indian cities will now be able to pick up Etam French lingerie, swimwear and innerwear for any occasion, addressing every mood, from a store not too far away.

With Miss India Earth Pooja Chitgopekar showcasing the lingerie collection of Etam, the leading French fashion apparel brand announced its joint venture with Pantaloons Retail (the Future Group) here late Thursday.

Both the companies will have a financial participation of 50 per cent in the enterprise and the clothes will be sold under the brand name 'ETAM Future Fashion Private Limited'.

Etam will open 40 outlets across 20 cities in India with an investment of Rs 900 million. Currently, Etam has seven stores and six shops in stores across five cities in India.

10 May: Pharmacy chain Fortis Healthworld today said it will open 250 outlets by the end of this year as part of its Rs 800 crore pan India expansion plan.

The pharmacy chain opened its 10th store in the national capital region today.

"We plan to open 250 stores by the end of this year. The newly-launched store marks the journey of Fortis Healthworld`s national plans," Fortis Healthcare managing director Shivinder Mohan Singh said.

The company had earlier announced that it would open 1,000 `one-stop-shops` across the country in the next five years entailing about Rs 800 crore investment.

Singh said the company had set a target of having presence in 400 cities across the country in five years.

To begin with, the stores will be launched in metros and mini-metros first and would be either company-owned or under the franchisee model.

"The current ten stores are company-owned and we are also open to the franchisee model if required to establish a strong presence nation wide," Singh said.

These 24/7 stores provide the customers with pharmacy goods, diagnostic centre, personal care products, health food and supplements, ayurvedic and homoeopathic medicines, health goods, and value added services like prescription reminder, OPD appointments and free home-delivery.

17 April: The Rs 1,469-crore Titan Industries has just opened its pilot store in prescription eyewear Tital Eye+, in Bangalore. Titan Eye+ will provide both eye check-up and style consultancy services. A brilliantly lit colour-splashed,1,000 sq ft, browse-feel-buy outlet has been designed for this purpose.

There are monitors placed at strategic angles in the store that record your visage as you try on various frames and then play them all back to you in sequence, so you select the frame that best suits your facial cut. There are separate browsing lines for men, women and children.

Until now, since glasses were perceived as utilitarian products, consumers rarely bought them as fashion accessories. With the entry of branded players, there could be new benchmarks in style, just the way Tanishq changed the way gold jewellery was retailed in India. Since 1995, the watch and jewellery maker had been retailing sunglasses under the Fastrack brand, targeted at the youth. These will now be retailed from Titan Eye+.

10 May: HCL Technologies, a global IT service provider; and Saba, the premier Human Capital Management (HCM) software and service provider have joined forces to provide Saba's products bundled with HCL's services to the customers.

The two companies will provide their services and relationships throughout Asia Pacific, mainly India, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore. They are also planning to expand in North America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.

When asked about the expansion plans in India, Sandeep Malhotra, deputy general manager (Industry Solutions) of HCL Technology said," We will soon expand in the Indian market (including HCL Infosystems). The company will not be seen as product resellers, but will be solution integrators and will provide professional services. The product license and support will be directly sold by Saba, and HCL will implement and support these products."

The two companies are targeting several vertical markets including media & entertainment, healthcare, financial services, retail, hi-technology and manufacturing.

Saba will offer knowledge management services such as learning management, system implementation, performance management, talent management, e-learning and courseware. The company already has its sales and marketing office in Mumbai.

The Indian customers will be offered Learning Management System (LMS) in-house, and Product Implementation system benefits. The Saba LMS, implemented by HCL, is a high level strategic solution for planning, delivering and managing events within an organization; and includes e-learning, re-skilling, talent, and employee first initiative (practiced by numerous companies).

Malhotra further stated, "It is a knowledge offering, which will enable employers to scale up in the knowledge management chain such as learning, training and so on. The Indian enterprises will be strengthened by these offerings as a lot of companies are demanding for such services,"

On the question of the preferred choice being Saba, Malhotra concluded, "Saba has a large market share in HCM software and an excellent roadmap. Besides, HCL has a long-standing relationship with Saba because we have already implemented the Saba Learning Management System (LMS) in-house."