New Business Opportunity

Future Group has decided to invest more than Rs 125 crore over the next six months to expand the Big […]

South India’s integrated commercial-cum-hospitality complex developer Express Infrastructure is in talks with big chains like Hyatt and Shangri-La to manage the hotel property built by it inside the Rs 750 crore Express Avenue Complex. Express Avenue, the mall-cum-commercial-cum-hotel complex built on over 10 acre area in the heart of the city, will have retail space of around 900,000 sq ft and commercial space of around 85,000 sq ft housing around 10 big corporates. The hotel complex will provide a new opportunity to the signage companies viz. in-store media majors, print providers, sign makers, etc.

Amway plans to open around 170 outlets across India in next five years. The company has to take the number of

Bling Telecom Pvt Ltd launches their flagship mobile phones brand Movil in the South Indian markets at Bengaluru. After capturing

Spanish fashion retailer Inditex SA, one of the famous brands flaunted all across the globe, is planning to open around 20-25 Zara stores in India in the next three years. The expansion plan is the company’s strategic move to learn the pulse of the Asian market. Entry of the French fashion giant into India will boost the subcontinent’s fashion retail sector and it would be a golden opportunity for signage companies like in-store media majors and sign providers.

After a phase of consolidation, billionaire Micky Jagtiani-owned Max Hypermarkets, which operates Spar-branded superstores, plans to expand its presence to new geographies and open 25 hypermarkets by 2012. This will result in a 10-fold increase in the company’s retail space—from 120,000 sq ft currently to 1.2 million sq ft. The company, currently, operates three large-format stores—two in Bangalore and one in Hyderabad—and is set to open its flagship property, a 90,000 sq ft store, in Bangalore soon. Now is the time for signage companies to get ready to hit the hypermarkets in a big way.

Vision Express, the 50-50 joint venture between Reliance Retail and Pearle Europe, has opened its first Vision Express store for eyewear in Ahmedabad. While the retail chain has 46 stores across 18 cities in the country, the Ahmedabad outlet is the 45th outlet for eyewear by the company. The new store is located at Iscon Mall and offers free eye test in an 11 step eye test that includes a special eye pressure check. The store is all set to present its new collection of sunglasses— ‘European Summer Sunglass Collection 2010’. This new Vision Express store is considered to be a new vision for the signage industry where every in-store media companies and sign suppliers can embark upon.

Future Group bought the lone India franchisee store of Shoprite Holdings Ltd, South Africa’s biggest grocery chain. Located at Mulund in

Domino’s Pizza announces that the market in India will be amongst the top five global markets for the company in

Cartier is looking to expand its distribution network in growing luxury market. Having set up its first store, in October 2008 at the Emporio Mall in New Delhi, in partnership with Navratna Bharat Retail, Cartier is offering India’s well-heeled its ‘Inde Mysterieuse’ jewellery collection that has been engraved, ribbed and cut in the Jaipur style. The company is making further presence of its stores in the country. The high-end jewellery store is certainly a new destination for the country’s signage segment, giving new opportunity to in-store media companies as well as signage suppliers.

Bombay Swadeshi Store, the gift and home retail chain, which sells under the brand of ‘The Bombay Store’, is planning to set up 16 stores by FY 2012. It is looking at upcoming new airports in the country for locating some of the new stores. The company currently has 11 stores in the country and is looking to set up outlets in Mumbai, Bangalore, Aurangabad, Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai, Indore, Chandigarh and Udaipur. A majority of its clientele consists of those who purchase Indian artefact and home accessories as gifts. Signage companies looking for new room to exploit will find Bombay Swadheshi Store a right spot for new business.

Micro Star International (MSI) has announced that they will further enhance their retail reach to make their range of consumer

Sears Knit that makes jackets for Arrow and Raymonds recently opened the first retail outlet of its own titled ‘Lure’ brand at the God Souk Grande mall in Ludhiana. So did 42 other local brands including better-known ones such as Octave, Monte Carlo, Bluemount and Madame as traditional contract manufacturers from the century-old hosiery and knitwear hub have come together to build a common platform for brand Ludhiana. The company will open its Delhi chapter next month at Wedding Souk at Pitam Pura with 25,000 square feet of retail space, to be followed by a 15,000 sq ft unit in Jaipur. Its Ludhiana outlet is spread across 40,000 sq ft. The expansion move of Sears Knit will be a golden opportunity for signage companies, particularly in-store media majors and sign suppliers to find a new room to exploit.

Titan Industries Ltd launched North India’s largest showroom in Lucknow. The exclusive outlet spreading over 2,600 sq ft has a display capacity of 1,900 watches, including Titan products featuring Titan, Raga, Xylys, Fastrack and Sonata brands. Lucknow is a big market for us and people across North India visit the city for shopping. The company also has the license to market Tommy Hilfiger and Hugo Boss watches in the country. Currently Titan has 289 World of Titan stores pan India and almost 100 more would be added by the end of 2010-11 and it would surely be a big business opportunity for signage players like in-store media companies, print providers and sign suppliers.

Aditya Birla Retail is roping in a financial investor to fund its expansion plans. Given the rate at which Aditya

Somany Ceramics inaugurated an exclusive imported tiles and sanitaryware showroom ‘Somany Global’ in Greater Kailash II, New Delhi. The showroom

InterfaceFLOR India Pvt Ltd, a global leader in modular commercial flooring, opens a new combined office and showroom in Mumbai. Located in the Prabhadevi Industrial Estate, this new office cum showroom will cater to the growing demand for the company’s innovative and sustainable carpet tiles. Spreading over 1350 sq ft, the new combined outlet has an open layout for optimal space utilisation and the use of uniform colour schemes ensuring that the central focus of the showroom is the fabulous designs. In other aspect, the new showroom would bring in a new business for the signage segment, giving new room to capture to in-store media comanies, print providers and others.

Aditya Birla Retail Limited (ABRL) aims to be an US$ 2.5-billion entity by 2017-18 with the opening of new stores, launching private labels and closing unviable stores, among other initiatives. The company will be opening 12 hypermarket stores every year at an investment of nearly Rs 18-crore per store, spreading across 55,000-75,000 sq ft. This year, the company’s stores will come up in cities like Delhi, Hyderabad, Surat, Pune and Nashik. Besides, it has also been planned to open 70-100 supermarket stores every year at an investment of nearly Rs 50-60-lakh per store of sizes 2,500-2,800 sq ft pan-India. Such mega expansion plan of the company will be a golden opportunity for in-store signage companies as well as sign suppliers all over India.

Footwear and apparel firm Woodland is giving a big push to the kids-wear segment with plans to launch range of

Gitanjali Group has announced that the company in the next two years will be buoyed by a 50 percent increase in retail space to 15 lakh sq ft across India. Currently, the group has around 3,000 retail outlets in India on a total area of 10 lakh sq ft. The expansion of retail space will help the company reach a target of Rs 10,000 crore revenue in the said period. Apart from diamonds and gold jewellery, the group has presence in areas like retail and lifestyle and infrastructure, under which it plans to build seven Special Economic Zones. Expansion of retail space will surely bring in a new opportunity to the signage players viz. in-store media companies and sign suppliers.