New Business Opportunity

Timberland has set out on an all new expedition by partnering with Reliance Brands through a license cum distribution agreement […]

Dabur India Ltd will start adopting the franchise route for its retail stores ‘Newu’ and explore smaller format stores in order to expedite expansion. The company’s subsidiary, H&B Stores Ltd that currently operates 22 ‘Newu’ stores primarily in North India, is also looking to open up to 150 new stores in 2011-12 and enter in the western region. It is also trying express or smaller formats that have quick turnaround time, besides focusing on ‘beauty’ as a category, as it looks to break even in the next two years. The new venture of Dabur entering into new expansion move will be an added advantage for signage players dealing with in-store displays.

Footwear major, Liberty Shoes, is planning to enhance its footprint across the country by tapping Tier II towns in the

Fellow foodies will have great time as Blue Ginger, the Taj Group’s first Vietnamese outlet (and second in India after

The premium sportswear market now has one more player – Italian lifestyle brand Fila. This would be the US$1.5-billion brand’s

Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) is planning to expand its fuel retail outlets with food courts, cinema halls and provision

Identifying scale as an immediate priority, Reliance Retail Ltd (RRL) intends to renew a rapid expansion drive to compete with mom-and-pop outlets and street markets, besides rival store chains. There is an opportunity for 2,000-5,000 stores. The retailer first plans to expand in large cities, classified as tier I and tier II, before entering tier III and tier IV cities and towns. The plan for rural India is to begin with sourcing the produce before entering the front-end in retail. Now the sunshine opprtunity is lying ahead for the in-store signage companies with the opening of RRL mom-and-pop stores.

Apparel manufacturer and retailer Cantabil announces its plans to enter the sportswear segment in the next two years. The company currently sells casual and formal wear for men, women and kids under ‘Cantabil’ and ‘La Fanso’ brands. The company, however, announces that their current focus is to expand its retail reach by opening more stores under the existing brands and also enhance production capacity. With such Cantabil’s expansion plan, signage players engaging in in-store segment or retail sector would find a new business opportunity.

Swedish home furniture giant Ikea pitched for fast-growing Indian retail sector to open up its huge retail precedence. The furnishings chain, which sources 500 million euros (655 million dollars) in textiles and other goods from India annually, plans to boost that figure to one billion euros within three to four years. If Ikea — famed for its flat pack stylish furniture — could open up stores in India it could supply at least half the volume of goods from Indian production sources as it does in China and Russia. And most of all, Ikea stores will furnish a new business for in-store signage companies.

Sports lifestyle brand Fila India plans to set up 60-70 stores within three years, mostly in metros and Tier I cities for an investment of over Rs 10 crore. The brand licence was bought about a year ago by Cravatex. It aims to garner a revenue of Rs 125-150 crore by the end of FY 2013. The first store is likely to come up in two weeks at Linking Road in Mumbai. The stores will be a mix of high streets and malls with an average size of 1,500 sq ft. Most of the stores are going to be franchised. The new Fila stores will be a new delight for in-store companies as well as PSPs, fabricators, etc.

US-based fashion brand Forever 21 opens its first ever store in India at Ambience Mall, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi. Headquartered

Evok Mega Home store, a specialty home interior destination brand by Hindware Home Retail Private (HHRPL), plans to open seven-eight Evok stores by the end of 2010-11. At present, the company has five stores in the NCR region and the sixth store was launched at Zirakpur recently. It has been decided that the new stores would be opened in Western and Southern parts of the country to help Evok create a pan-India presence. No doubt, the Evok stores would provoke new zeal in the business of in-store signage companies as well as others like PSPs, fabricators, sign suppliers, etc.

Essar Hypermart, India’s first steel retail chain by Essar Steel, launches its 100th outlet in India, at Ranchi. With the

Metro Cash & Carry, an international self-service wholesale retailer, would initially make its two wholesale distribution centres at Zirakpur and Ludhiana operational by the middle of 2011. The group would also launch the other two distribution centres at Patiala and Jalandhar by the end of year 2011. The centres would give a push for the modern practices in the development of the state with the focus on agriculture development and employment generation in allied farming. The new Cash & Carry outlets is an added advantage for the in-store signage majors as well as others like PSPs, signage fabricators, etc

Cafe Coffee Day (CCD), owned by Bangalore-based Amalgamated Bean Coffee Trading Company, would increase its total outlets to 1,100 by

Bharti Walmart plans to open 40 more retail and three cash-and-carry wholesale stores by December 2010. Two cash-and-carry stores would come up in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh by the year-end. The company currently has three such stores. The firm will be looking at south India next year. This process is on and Andhra Pradesh and the south will be the company’s next foray to set up cash-and-carry stores. The company plans to invest US$2 billion in the next 10 years. This expansion is the new step with which in-store signage companies can embark upon new business.

Godrej Group’s retailing venture, Natures Basket, announces contribution from its retailing venture to increase three-folds in the coming years. The company,

Gitanjali Gems, a listed jewellery company that owns brands such as Nakshatra and D’damas, has engaged consulting firm KPMG to help restructure its business. The company believes that the intrinsic value is much more than the existing market cap of the company. The company has five major businesses. These include manufacturing of diamond and jewellery, brands, retail stores, construction and international retail stores. The restructuring exercise is expected to be completed over the next 6-12 months. In this endeavor of Gitanjali Gems, in-store signage companies can find opportunity to unfold new business.

Swiss luxury watch brand Zenith is planning to double its presence in India through shop-in-shop model. The brand, now owned by Moet Hennessy – Louis Vuitton (LVMH) group, was launched in 2009 in India and now eying brand conscious and global traveler young Indians as its growth strategy. India is very unique market with lots of diversity at the same time exiting with opportunities as the company is trying to tap the opportunity. With such double fold increase of Zenith stores, there creates opportunity for new business for in-store signage companies.

Cad B, the branded chain of retail outlets for chocolate drink and other varieties from the Pune-based A P Confectionary Pvt Ltd (APCPL), is planning to open 150 new franchisee outlets at select major cities across India by the end of the next FY 2011-12. The company is also planning to introduce sugar free chocolate drink for diabetic patients in the coming few months. The company, which already has two outlets in Nashik, is planning another two new outlets in Nashik by September 2010. Addition of new stores to the existing 50 franchisee outlets, including 20 in Pune and rest of the outlets are located in other cities will be an added advantage for signage companies, particularly those engaged in in-store displays.