Grand Kerala Shopping Fest turnover expected at Rs 2500 cr
Times of India

The Grand Kerala Shopping Festival (GKSF), which had logged a combined turnover of Rs 5,000 crore during the past four seasons, is expected to touch a turnover of Rs 2,500 crore during the current season which starts on December 1 this year. Ratan Kelkar, Director, GKSF, is confident that 7,000 shops will be involved in the festival which will be spread over from December to the beginning of 2012. The GKSF model of boosting local business with active participation from the government has already drawn the attention of other states. However, the success of the concept has attracted both bouquets and brickbats.

Canon to open 300 outlets across India
Times of India

Japanese imaging major, Canon's Indian arm aims to triple its business to Rs 4,500 crore ($1 billion) in four years by opening 300 exclusive outlets, many of them in tier-III and IV cities, the head of its operations in India said, "We hope to close this year at Rs 1,600 crore. By 2015, we hope to take this to Rs 4,500 crore. In the process, we will be increasing our exclusive retail brand stores from 95 by the end of this year to 300," Canon India President and CEO, Kensaku Konishi said. Canon is growing not only in the big cities but in the tier II and III cities too. Towards this end, the company already opened 38 outlets in tier-II and III cities.

Toshniwal charts future without Biyani
mydigitalfc.com

Mayur Toshniwal, Future Group's Chief Executive Officer for the telecom business and in charge of the mobile service venture T24, has quit the company. His exit is the third such high profile exit in recent months, after the CEO of eZone and a top staffer at its HomeTown unit quit. Another Future Group employee, Sandeep Tarkas will take up additional responsibilities as the CEO of Future Telecom and head of T24 along with his duties as CEO of Future Media and president of customer strategy. Tarkas will continue to report to Future Group CEO, Kishore Biyani.

Boggi Milano opens 10th India store
FashionUnited India

Leading Italian menswear and lifestyle brand, Boggi Milano opened doors to its 10th brand store at the Market City, Phoenix Mall in Pune. The brand that entered India in 2008, in a joint venture with real estate major DLF's retail management subsidiary, DLF Brands, now operates 10 stores across India. The company is also looking at launching another four stores by the end of this financial year. These are to come up in Mumbai, Pune and Bangalore. Boggi Milano operates in over a dozen countries and has around 90 exclusive outlets across the world.

Monte Carlo enters Andhra Pradesh
Franchiseindia.com

Monte Carlo Fashions Ltd, an Indian apparel brand has recently unveiled its first exclusive brand outlet in Hyderabad via franchise route. The new outlet located in City Centre Mall, Banjara Hills features products like knitwear's, pullovers, jackets, jumpers, jerseys, basic polos etc. Presently, Monte Carlo has 144 stores, out of which 35 are company owned and the rest are franchisee-owned. Monte Carlo is a sub-brand of Oswal Woollen Mills Limited, which is a part of Nahar group and is present through a strong network of 800 multi brand outlets across India.

CarZ plans pan India expansion
Franchiseindia.com

CarZ, a multi brand car service network is planning to open 300 outlets across India by 2016. The new CarZ outlets will be a mix of franchise and company owned outlets, with 70 percent of it being franchise-owned and 30 percent being company-owned. Headquartered in Hyderabad, the company presently operates four service locations in Hyderabad. The company is scheduled to expand across approximately 36 outlets in south India, including Andhra Pradesh, by the middle of 2012.

7 For All Mankind brings kids into focus
FashionUnited India

Renowned global brand 7 For All Mankind, a division of VF Corp is now wooing children in India with its new range. The brand recently launched its kids' range under the brand 7FAM. Founded in 2000, the Los Angeles-based denim company is retailing its exclusive collections in India through a distribution agreement with Maxxis Group. It has one EBO in Delhi and two more are in the pipeline in Mumbai and Hyderabad. These would be launched in early 2012 and 2013 respectively.

My Mart opens second store in Dwarka, fifth in Delhi-NCR
indiaretailing.com

My Mart, an Indian retailer of goods for infants and kids, has opened its second store in Dwarka, New Delhi. This is the fifth outlet of My Mart in Delhi-NCR. Spread over 4,000 sq.ft., the new outlet stocks apparel, footwear, accessories, stationary, gifts and toys, and furniture for infants and kids up to five years old. Speaking at the launch, Pawan Agarwal, Chairman and Managing Director, MY Mart, said, "This is our fifth store which offers a wide range of products and variety at affordable price. We are planning to open 10 more stores in Delhi NCR."

Yum separates India business to show potential store growth
Bloomberg

Yum! Brands Inc., which owns the KFC and Taco Bell restaurant chains, will separate its India business from its international segment, to highlight the country's potential growth. Yum is reorganizing its international division and Niren Chaudhary, 48, was named president of Yum's India business. According to Sara Senatore, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. in New York, while Yum has sought to boost sales by aggressively opening stores in China, it's now underscoring a focus on India. "It makes sense to start talking about this separately... Yum's business in India is growing rapidly as "their brands have resonated in that market," she said.

Kraft Foods bets big on India, says emerging markets will drive growth
Economic Times

Kraft Foods Inc, North America's largest packaged food maker, is betting big on the Indian consumer's rising spending power as it firms up plans to become one of the top five food companies in the country in the coming years, in an effort to offset sluggish growth in the developed markets. The global buy of Cadbury has added popular brands such as Dairy Milk and Bournvita to Kraft's India portfolio, helping it propel growth in the world's second fastest growing major economy. It retails brands like Oreo biscuits and fruit flavoured drink Tang from its own portfolio in the Indian market.

Lavazza brews big plans for India
Business Standard

To appeal to the creme-de-la creme, Italian coffee roaster Lavazza is here with a new format, Espression. The first of its speciality format recently unveiled in Delhi, will be gradually extended to Bangalore and Mumbai. The company is targeting 30 such stores over the course of three years. Unlike the company's other international retail formats like Caffe di Roma (Spain), Onda (Bulgaria) and Barista (India), with Lavazza Espression the ambition is to develop a global coffee retail brand.

TTK Group, Cigna ink JV to sell health insurance in India
VC Circle

Chennai-based TTK Group, a diversified home appliances-to-healthcare product enterprise known for its popular household brands like Prestige, has inked a joint-venture with US-based health service provider Cigna to sell a range of health insurance products across India, the company has said in a statement. The financial details of the agreement are not disclosed. Founded in 1928 and headquartered in Chennai & Bangalore, Rs 1,500-crore TTK Group operates multiple businesses and sells everything from cookware to pharmaceuticals.

Tata Group's DIESL revs up reverse logistics
Procurement Leaders News

Tata Group's logistics arm, DIESL has adopted a programme to boost its reliance on reverse logistics across India, in a bid to optimise supply chain services. The industrial giant is increasing its focus on reverse logistics - the reverse flow of materials from customer to supplier - to improve value from returned items or to keep reverse logistics costs to a minimum. "DIESL has been presently involved in providing reverse logistics solution to a sizeable number of customers. We have been devising reverse logistics solutions in order to complement the supply chain services which the organization is offering to its esteemed customers," Ajay Chopra, CEO, DIESL said.

RFID Chip-based Serialization for Retail: An alternative to IT solutions for managing item-level tagging
UPM RFID

Item-level radio frequency identification (RFID) using standard Electronic Product Codes (EPCs) is rapidly becoming a key factor in improving retail inventory management. The main driver for adoption is quite simple - taking inventory with RFID is 25 times faster than with bar codes. As major retailers like Walmart, J. C. Penney, and Macy's roll out item-level RFID, brand owners must find a low-cost, reliable way to implement serialization.