Fashion sells. Does it? The exercise leading up to the first ever IMAGES Retail Awards (IRA) gave us enough pointers that the business of beauty and fashion is blooming. Fashion it was that fashioned the retail trail as it leapfrogged to various other segments such as entertainment, consumer electronics, leisure, catering services. The pioneers in the organised field were Zodiac, Raymonds, Bata, Tribhovandas Bhimji Zaveri or the very up-market stores in plush five-star hotels like Gazdar in Mumbai.
Flashback to the Seventies and Eighties. Even as recent as that, it is retailing of fashion that comes to the top of the mind. In other sectors, be it consumer electronics or catering services retailing was still to emerge. Opening up of the economy, availability of affordable quality retail spaces and a global consumer have set the retail turnstiles moving faster. And it is fashion once again that is setting new benchmarks.
Retail ambience, a brand or retailer’s ability to connect at the emotional level with consumers, value for money are factors that new age retailers have strived for. And, wherever that connect – be it excitement or affordability – has been generated, Lady Luck has not been coy. Retail wizard Kishore Biyani said as much while accepting the IRA trophy for Retail Face of the Year. “My success goes to the women in my life. We understand what women want.” A world of truth the lines reveal.
Titan Industries is also a case in point. A manufacturing company, it has done all that is required to change the mindset of the traditional consumer, create excitement at regular intervals in its Titan and Tanishq stores to keep consumers flocking in, looked well at the interests of its franchisees. It has innovated on design, footfall conversions, and above all pegged to the fashion quotient.
The cash registers are obviously ringing. And obviously enough, taking a cut from fashion the retail sector has expanded beyond to many other segments. Retailers are constantly scheming to invest in new plans and strategies to woo pliable but demanding consumers. Is the industry meeting the growing demands of consumers – consumers who want value for money for each product they buy? Where does fashion retail stand with competition coming in from so many quarters?
Expenditure on fashion may have gone down several notches as compared to lifestyle gadgets, eating out. But, considering that ours is a land of festivals, ours is a state where the distaff side is coming into its own as never before, ours is a state where the ‘feel good, look good’ today rests almost cheek by jowl with the bedrocks of existence – roti, kapda and makaan, ours is a country much younger by the average mean age of its population, ours is a nation where salaries have seen a turn for the better and households having more than one earning member, the spend on fashion cannot really go down.
Not by any scale of economics. Not just the much-maligned Page 3 chatterati and the classes in its genre, look at the average college and schoolgoing student today, look at today’s housewife even in a B class city like say Indore or Rajkot or Guwahati or Durgapur or Coimbatore. The Jis Desh Mein and Kyunki’s definitely hold sway. Wait and watch. Jassi too will join the league. Television was, once upon a time, a fashion statement. The brand of car you drive still makes a strong statement. Have plasma TV? No? You are still not quite there, pal. We just have to cast a look around our own respective environment. We are the people, we are the pulse of the nation. The youth is indeed spending more, women are spending more… fashion cannot really take a back seat within these two segments.
The need screams both among the classes and the masses. The screaming need is for innovations, be it in textiles, textures, cuts, lines, services offered, or honouring the brandmade promises – be it fashion, consumer durables, the new department store that’s opened shop in the mall nearest to your home, the home you live in... the list is endless. In fact, your standard of living, the places you haunt, the joints you frequent, the clothes you wear, the brands you patronise make your very own fashion statement.
The other day I was more than surprised when the lady at the beauty parlour around the corner of my residential complex informed me that domestic helps walk into the parlour to get their eyebrows threaded and even for a facial – regularly. A couple of days later I was not very surprised when a help at the floor below had her hair coloured black – a telltale thick band of colour still tarred her forehead. Tummy tucks and gyms are becoming as common and necessary as dal-roti and then there is the casualwear, ethnicwear, sportswear, partywear, gymwear… consumers definitely are not a weary lot.
There is space still for stylish monsoon fashion gear complemented with colourful, chic accessories, I reiterate, space still for vegetable dyed apparel bejewelled perhaps with stones that heal, space still for bags that can come in with multiple, foldable skins to complement the dress and shoes, space still to dig into the rich past and contemporarise it for the present, or, who knows the future too… space aplenty really.
The question that arises then, is: Is the industry doing enough to cater to these spaces, enough to create new spaces? The discount/rebate/sale mantra works wonders. Value retailers like Big Bazaar and Giant who also sell fashion apart from merchandise like groceries, vegetables etc, have a sizeable turnover from this segment. The loyalty programmes at the various retail chains garner enough returns, and yet, yet consumers are a fickle lot as they hop from product to product, brand to brand, retailer to retailer. That too is being looked into as brands target kids, today’s pester power and youth of the morrow who willwield the power to spend. Fashion has also spilled over to the masses.
Where then is fashion spend heading to? The high fives here may not be the boisterous kinds, but there sure is reason to cheer. Can fashion ever go out of fashion? Whatever be the case, we find out what helped some fashion and lifestyle brand winners at the IRA and also those who made it to the Hall of Fame. (All retailers have been listed in alphabetical order)
Arvind Brands
Tie-ups to manufacture and retail a clutch of international brands like Arrow, Wrangler, Lee, Tommy Hilfiger, and a concept-oriented store in Denim Republic, Arvind Brands, part of the Lalbhai Group, made it to the Hall of Fame in the IRA category for Retailer of the Year: Fashion. Vaunting a design team that includes Renato Grande and Salli Deighton, the brand adds 400 designs in Lee and 350 designs in Wrangler per season. A Milan-based designer for Arrow, Grande has worked previously in Versace and Marlborough Classics, while Deighton, a London-based designer for Wrangler, also designs for Gap, Next and Mothercare.
Licensee for brands like Arrow, Lee and Wrangler, owning brands like Excalibur, New Port, Flying Machine and Ruggers, Arvind had a retail turnover of Rs 345 crore in 2003-04. It netted a 2.7 per cent profit at Rs 9.6 crore, its sale per square foot at Rs 23,000 per annum across a total retail space of 1.5 lakh sq ft.
Arrow set up 10 new format stores last year and is sold through 50 EBOs and 250 MBOs across the country. Wrangler has 43 and Lee 63 showrooms spread across 37 cities. While Wrangler added six stores, Lee added eight last year. Denim Republic currently has two stores in Bangalore. Three Tommy Hilfiger stores were opened last year. Lee saw a 30 per cent growth over the previous year. It claims to hold 29 per cent and Wrangler 14 per cent market share in the Rs 1000+ denim categories. Arrow launched ‘Project Bespoke’, an exclusive mass customisation service recently, and also has a 24-hour response service at its outlet. Arrow’s loyalty club boasts of over 9,000 members.
Arvind Brands launched Denim Republic targeting the 15-25 years segment, offering under one roof its popular denim brands, as also on-the-spot customisation of denims and t-shirts. It was nominated for the IRA in the Retail Launch of the Year category along with Family Mart (Bangalore), One Store (Hyderabad) and Plug-in.
Occupying about 4,000 sq ft of retail space, the store aids shopping with a Denim Republic Menu which informs customers about product range and prices.
It offers on-the-spot customisation for denims, nail bars, make-up counters, massage chairs, tattoo bar, body piercing, juke box, graffiti board and a polaroid booth. It has also come up with an exchange offer on old jeans, which are donated to children.
KSA believes that this format can have 100 stores in the next five years. It also advises that since the target segment is 15-25 year olds, the outlets must expand at places that have high concentration of schools and colleges.
Curls and Curves India Ltd (VLCC)
Health and beauty salons retailing health & beauty care products with a minimum of five outlets, showing sure signs of success in expanding the market; growing health consciousness in general and being responsible towards consumers’ well being were the parameters with which nominees for Retailer of the year: Health & beauty category were scanned. Vandana Luthra’s Curls and Curves India Ltd walked away with the IRA, while others that made it to the Hall of Fame were Lakme Salon, Shahnaz Husain and Health and Glow.
Read this: VLCCs profit-after-tax growth in 2003-04 was 345 per cent. Phenomenal all right! This was due to shifting of the business model from a joint venture to own operations. Initially the stores were a joint venture with an investor but the operations were run by VLCCs own staff. In 2003 -04 VLCC took over complete ownership of the stores. The revenue in the same period rose from Rs 55 crore to Rs 82 crore. This was a 49 per cent growth over the previous year. The operating profit stood at 35 per cent, and sales per sq ft at Rs 5,950.
Accorded the ‘Superbrand’ status as one of the most recognised brands of India, VLCCs retail reach extended to 38 cities with 72 outlets across an estimated 144,000 sq ft area till March 2004. The product retail penetration is across 6,000 outlets. Twelve outlets were opened in 2003-04.
A pioneer in the industry for slimming services, VLCC runs across many formats like slimming centres, beauty salon, work out factory for fitness, nail and studio spa for specialised nail care, personal care products, and beauty shop which is the retail front for products. In order to maintain service quality, VLCC has its own institute which has campuses in New Delhi and Lucknow. The institute is affiliated to City and Guilds of UK. Every VLCC employee undergoes training at this institute. It employs 3,500 people of whom about 1,000 are doctors, dieticians, cosmetologists, pyschologists, physiotherapists and trained counsellors.
Ebony
Ebony made it to the IRA Hall of Fame for Department Store of the Year. It currently operates eight stores in a retail space that adds up to 1.5 lakh sq ft. The last addition in the stores was in 1999. The retail revenue in the last year was Rs 80 crore.
Profitability stood at 1 per cent i.e. Rs 80 lakh. The retail chain totes up Rs 5,300 per annum sq ft of sales.
Offering its entire range of merchandise at its online shopping portal www.ebonyclick.com, private Label Etc contributes 22 per cent of the apparel sales. Providing customers an experience of worldclass merchandise at affordable prices across all categories, Ebony’s offerings include apparel for men, women and children, books, music, personal care and cosmetics, jewellery, luggage. The books and music are sold through its concept book store called Wordsworth.
Studio Ivory is a recent addition that sells designerwear targeted at the middle income category. Its loyalty programme, Ebony Elite Club, has a base of 40,000 customers.
Ebony has also established a retail academy in association with the National Institute of Sales.
Family Mart
A value shopping supercentre for the family, Family Mart spreads over 4 acres with a retailing area of about 100,000 sq ft. It made it to the Hall of Fame in the Retail Launch of the Year category.
The store layout is only ground plus one level aimed at giving customers a feel of unrestrained space. Several cash counters and wide aisle spaces are used to enhance the factor.
The merchandise mix comes through a department store called Centra, a supermarket called Dailys and a foodcourt and an entertainment centre for kids. Other facilities like a music store, book store, bakery, PhotoShop and a beauty salon are also a part of the total offering at the Mart.
Opened in October 2003 at Bangalore, it plans to expand into 18 more Dailys outlets in Bangalore and satellite towns.
With a monthly turnover of Rs 2 crore, it has 4,000 walk-ins on weekdays and 7,000 during weekends. Promoting sub-brands like Centra and Dailys, these will provide it with the flexibility of launching them as individual outlets in future. If launched separately the number of stores possible could be a few hundred in the next five years.
High Street Phoenix, Mumbai
High Street Phoenix, a nominee for the Retail Destination of the Year, has leading retail chains Pantaloons, Lifestyle, Big Bazaar, Marks & Spencer, and Arcus as its anchor stores. Spread over an area of 5 lakh sq ft, it has a retail mix of fashion, food, entertainment and home. High Street receives a footfall of 15,000 on weekdays and about 30,000 on weekends. An added attraction is the 12,000 sq ft Quorum, an assemblage of the best that fashion and lifestyle has to offer. Spread over three floors, Quorum is split into two elements – standalone stores and a unique store-in-store concept that has never before been implemented in India.
Lakme Salon
Launched in 1970’s, but expanded on the franchisee model only in 2001, the Lakme Salons have been able to document the complex processes of a salon business effectively. In fact, the system and processes are now an industry benchmark. This observation is based on views of some industry experts.
With a retail reach of 72 salons across 27 cities, from 35 salons in 2002, the average store space is around 800 sq ft, giving it an estimated retail space of 56,700 sq ft. The retail space growth in 2003 was a huge 106 per cent. Thirty-seven outlets were opened during 2003-04. KSA estimates that the 2003 revenues are in the range of Rs 28-32 crore with a revenue growth of 50 per cent over the previous year. The sales per sq ft is estimated at Rs 6,000. There was a 15 per cent increase in total sales due to new initiatives like training and ‘HairNext’, wherein six new international hairstyles were launched to suit Indian women. The Salon also offers B2B corporate imaging services.
Lifestyle
Customer satisfaction in terms of service level and ambience, and merchandise mix as in the assortment of products and its depth were the two chief governing criteria that went into the selection of the category for Department Store of the Year. Lifestyle, a venture of the UAE-based Landmark Group, came out trumps while Shoppers’ Stop, Westside, Ebony, and Piramyd made it to the last lap.
Seven stores in four cities sprawled across 3.2 lakh sq ft, Lifestyle grew by 70 per cent over the previous year as it toted up retail revenue to the tune of Rs 230 crore. The sale per sq ft was Rs 7,187 per annum. It added two stores in the last fiscal. Private labels contribute 10 per cent to the total revenue.
Rated as the ‘No. 1 Retail Company’ by Business World-IMRB Most Respected Company Awards Survey 2003, Lifestyle gives a cherishable experience to the customer with its lively merchandise displays, bright lighting, seamless transition from one department to the other and the larger than life store size. Besides, each store has a Coffee Island managed by Qwikys. The merchandise mix includes apparel, footwear, toys, stationery, household items, furniture, personal care products, cosmetics, health and fitness. Its customer loyalty programme, The Inner Circle, boasts a membership of 2.2 lakh people.
With segment specific brands like 2xtremz for women and Juniors for infants, the store also introduced three private labels: Ginger, Baby Doll and JRS Active. Several promotion plans like SMS for customer communications, Mad for each other, Shop for a surprise etc, have helped increase its popularity. Not surprising it bagged for two consecutive years the IMAGES Fashion Awards for the Most Admired Large Format Retailer. At the IRA, it was also nominated for the Retail Destination of the Year.
Madura Garments
Madura Garments claims a 35 per cent market share in the premium shirts and 20 per cent in the premium trousers market. With 300 exclusive and flagship stores, 1,500 multibrand outlets across 100 cities of India, it retails its brands Louis Philippe (Rs 130 crore), Van Heusen (Rs 100 crore), Peter England (Rs 130 crore), Allen Solly, as also its EBOs Planet Fashion and Trouser Town through a total space of 1.5 lakh sq ft. Madura Garments made it to the IRA Hall of Fame in the Retailer of the year: Fashion category.
In the year 2003-04, it added 14 stores in about 60,000 sq ft of retail space and plans to add another 60,000 sq ft in the current year. Madura Garments’ retail turnover was Rs 204 crore last year with retail level ROI ranging between 12-14 per cent. The sales per sq ft is around Rs 13,600 per annum.
In terms of fashion forwardness and new concepts, MG launches 720 designs in shirts and 360 designs in trousers annually across all brands. It started an exclusive denim apparel store named San Frisco, apart from setting up a new store format Planet Fashion which stocks all the Madura brands under one roof. It also started a new section under the Planet Fashion store format called Suits Unlimited, dedicated to suitings. The Van Heusen and Louis Philippe range have been extended into suitings. MG also runs loyalty programmes for all its major brands.
Instituted as part of Coats Viyella’s (UK) garment division, Madura Garments was acquired by Aditya Birla Group in 1991.
One Store
Located in Hyderabad’s shopping district of Begumpet, One Store was launched in February 2004. It was nominated in the IRA Launch of the Year category. Apart from apparel for men, women and children, health & beauty, footwear, it offers a whole lot merchandise for any household.
Sprawling across 20,000 sq ft in one level, the store houses a 1,600 sq ft coffee shop and a children's play area of around 1,000 sq ft. The bills generated at the store amount to 240 per day with sales per sq ft at Rs 22 per sq ft per day on a net retail area basis.
The management plans to open shop in Pune and Bangalore in the next 15 months. The high consumer acceptance of the format allows scaleability of the concept into metros and mini-metros depending upon the management competence. KSA estimates that this format is scaleable to about 50 stores in the next five years.
Pantaloon Retail
Five nominations and four in the kitty. Great going it was for the Pantaloon team led by its chief Kishore Biyani. The pioneering retail maverick himself walked away with the award for the Retail Face of the Year, while his company Pantaloon Retail, which had found place in the Top 100 Wealth Creating Companies, was adjudged by IRA as the Most Admired Retailer of the Year: Across all categories. Big Bazaar was nominated in two categories: Retail Destination of the Year and Retailer of the Year: Value retailing. It bagged the IRA trolley in the second category. Food Bazaar, which simulated an Indian bazaar feel for the shopping of vegetables and fruits, but with a lot more comfort, trolled away with the award for Retailer of the Year: Food & grocery.
Big Bazaar
Big Bazaar was adjudged Retailer of the Year: Value retailing at the first ever IRA. The criteria the nominees had to fulfill was that it be a hypermarket/discount store/ factory outlet with a minimum of three outlets, successfully getting masses to shop in structured formats, luring them with discount offerings, schemes and great shopping experience and at the same time ensuring profits for all stakeholders. Big Bazaar won hands down in the competition with Giant and Vishal Megamart.
‘Isse sasta aur achcha kahin nahin’ (Nothing can be better and cheaper than this) promises the catchline as Big Bazaar fulfills wholesomely the key parameters in terms of value proposition and business performance taking into account the existing scale of business, growth achieved during the last year, the marketing share and business acumen.
With a 170 per cent growth rate over 2002- 03, the turnover for 2003-04 was Rs 2 billion with PBIT of 9 per cent. The only player in this segment with a national presence, Big Bazaar’s sales per sq ft comes to Rs 5,100 per annum from nine outlets across eight cities including Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Kolkata and Gurgaon. The total area occupied is 390,000 sq ft. Five of nine stores opened in 2003-04. The growth rate observed over 2002-03 was pegged at 125 per cent. The retail space added during in 2003 was 245,000 sq ft.
Currently half of the Big Bazaar format constitutes apparel retailing and the other half is divided between household goods and food & grocery. Some 170,000 products are available at prices that are 6-60 per cent below MRP. It has also tied up with ICICI Bank for co-branded credit cards.
Piraymd
Currently operating with three stores occupying a total space of 1.3 lakh sq ft, the Piramyd Megastore (department store chain), plans to expand to 16 stores. It added two stores in the last year.
With the stores yet to break even, revenues stood at Rs 56 crore in 2003-04. The sales per sq ft averages about Rs 5,500 per annum.
Offering branded merchandise in men’s apparel, ladies fashion, unisex casuals, kids apparel and toys, apparel accessories, footwear, perfumes and cosmetics, the Piramyd Megamart loyalty programme has a 1 lakh strong membership, offering a variety of privileges like discount offers, home delivery, home shopping, personal service assistant, tickets for movie premieres, plays or music concerts.
The Retail Business Group of Piramal Enterprises was nominated in two categories at the IRA. While Piramyd made it to the last lap in the Department Store of the Year category, its CEO since July 2003, Krishnamurthy N Iyer, was among four others in the Hall of Fame for Retail Face of the Year.
Provogue
With actor Fardeen Khan flaunting its range of shirts and trousers, and even humming it aloud in a ditty, Provogue from Acme Clothing has, in just about some three years, pretty well cornered the market for its 59 EBOs and 75 shop-in-shops. What helped also was the buzz that marked the launch of its concept store Provogue Lounge in a 2,500 sq ft area which serve as an apparel store in the mornings and as a lounge bar in the evenings. The products say it all, as Provogue today stands not just for the apparel it sells, but the attitude and style it communicates through the lounge concept and of course the brand imagery. The Provogue studios across the country carry a distinctive look of the brand.
Claiming a market share of 45 per cent in the relevant category of semiformals, the Provogue sale per sq ft amounts to Rs 10,300 with revenues for last year at Rs 60 crore and profitability at 25 per cent of the retail sales turnover at Rs 15 crore. It currently hogs retail space in 16 cities across 58,000 sq ft. Plans are on to expand to 4.4 lakh sq ft (including international). Not surprisingly it won the IMAGES Fashion Award (IFA) for the most outstanding brand launch in 2000 and for the most exclusive brand in 2003, IFA award for the most innovative retail concept for Provogue Lounges in 2004, and the CNAI award for the most exclusive men’s brand in 2004.
Raymond
Indian textile major, Raymond, offers over 3,000 qualities, shades and designs of fabric to its customers through the Raymond Shop which has extended its reach to malls and smaller towns like Bhyander, Baramati, Durgapur, Guwahati, Bathinda, Bhilai, Nizamabad, Kollam, Khagra, Shimoga. It also introduced the Super 200’s fabric for the first time in India.
It made it to the IRA Hall of Fame in the Retailer of the Year: Fashion category.
Claiming to hog a 3 per cent share of the country’s apparel market, the Raymonds portfolio of brands – Park Avenue, Parx, Manzoni, Be:, was boosted with the addition of the Rs 78 crore ColorPlus in select stores and new categories in readymade brands. There is a new leather products range from Manzoni along with its new range of jackets and trousers. It has corporatised designerwear with its store Be: which has a total of 14 stores. The Be: stores give a personalised experience to customers with the ‘Be: Transformed’ concept, a contemporary approach to interpret trends to suit one’s personal style.
Reaching out with 280 exclusive stores in 136 cities across the country, Raymonds also has 20 overseas stores in 15 cities of the Middle East, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal. Eighteen Stores in India and three overseas were added in the last year, taking its total selling space to 1.03 million sq ft built up area. There is the shop-in-shop facility to promote select brands like Manzoni and ColorPlus.
The Raymond Shop saw an increase of 6 per cent in revenues by toting up Rs 481 crore in 2003-04 as compared to last year’s Rs 455 crore. Its sale per square feet comes to around Rs 4,670 per annum.
It has set up customer experience monitoring process in shops for tracking detailed information on customer satisfaction across the chain of stores.
RPG Group
The first company to launch the hypermarket format in India under the name Giant with 1.2 lakh sq ft of retail space and 25,000 SKUs, RPG Retail made it to the IRA Hall of Fame in as many as four categories. While the man behind it all, Raghu Pillai, who has pioneered and now heads five completely different retail outfits was among the nominees for Retail Face of the Year, his Rs 530 crore company was nominated in the category for Most Admired Retailer of the Year: Across all categories, Giant was a runner-up in Retailer of the Year: Value retailing, and Health and Glow was featured in Retailer of the Year: Health & beauty.
Giant
With one store each in Hyderabad (120,000 sq ft) and Mumbai (50,000 sq ft), Giant took a leap forward in the business of retail when it pioneered the concept of multiple pricing wherein customers pay less when they purchase more. Giant’s central theme is the widest range being offered at discounted prices i.e. ‘Badaa Choice Chota Price’.
Apart from apparel, the merchandise mix includes white goods, luggage, home appliances at discounts of 4-40 per cent on the MRP.
With sales per sq ft at Rs 6,667 per annum, the turnover for 2002-03 was Rs 80 crore, and Rs 90 crore for 2003-04.
Some of its special features are regular promotions and special offers 52 weeks of the year, unconditional replacement guarantee, price guarantee for offering the lowest prices and a dedicated help line.
Health and Glow
Retailing health and beauty products in a wide assortment and knowledge for application with unique value proposition using promotions, Health and Glow currently operates 28 retail outlets in New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai. There were 18 stores in March 2003 and six were added till March 2004. The average store size is 1,250 sq ft which has increased from 800 in 2001. Hence, total retail space in March 2004 was approximately 22,000 sq ft. The estimated growth in retail space is pegged at around 40 per cent.
KSA estimates the revenue for 2003-04 was in the range of Rs 25-28 crore, with a 41.5 per cent growth over previous year. Rs 11,350 is the sale per sq ft.
To a certain extent, Health and Glow may be credited with modernisation of health and beauty product retailing. The new initiatives of store layout, and roll-out increased its retail performance on all key metrics, eg like for like sales, number of bills, transaction value, etc.
On an average about 100 SKUs are kept on promotions at any given time. Local customisation of merchandise is also done. For instance, about 1,000 SKUs were added in the Mumbai store as customers demanded global brands. It also retails around 350 different Ayurvedic products through own stores and other MBOs.
Shahnaz Husain
Herbal queen Shahnaz Husain is the pioneer in the field of beauty products and service retailing. This much acclaimed brand has 34 years of experience in the field, and is also the most international health and beauty retailer of India. It made it to the IRA Hall of Fame in the category: Retailer of the Year: Health & beauty. With an estimated retail space of 280,000 sq ft, it added 350 salons last year and 300 till March 2003. The overall revenues for 2003-04 stood at Rs 40 crore – Rs 8 crore from salon retail stores and Rs 2 crore from beauty stores. The distribution and export contribute Rs 30 crore. The growth was calculated to be an increase of 15 per cent over the previous year. The net profit is at Rs 1.5 crore i.e. 3.75 per cent, and sales per sq ft is Rs 357 per annum.
The formats range from Shahnaz Husain Forever Beautiful Shops, Training Institute in Beauty Therapy, Ayurvedic Centres for Panchkarma, Dhara and Kerala Massage to Shahnaz Husain Medispas. The products retail penetration is achieved through 40 distributors and 600 sub distributors. A measure of its R&D strengths, Shahnaz Herbals has more than 350 beauty products sold in about 35 countries. The Medispas and Salon stores are also present in the Middle East, Europe and the US.
Shahnaz Husain has herself led the march of her chain by winning the Worlds Greatest Women Entrepreneur Award from US Magazine Success. The other awards and recognition that have come her way include the Arch of Europe Gold Star Award, Global Quality Management Award, Golden America Award, and International Diamond Star for Quality.
Shoppers’ Stop
One of the pioneers in the Indian retail industry, Shoppers’ Stop walked away with the IRA trolley for the Retail Destination of the Year, with its MD and chief executive officer, BS Nagesh finding place of honour in the Hall of Fame for Retail Face of the Year along with visionaries like RPG group’s Raghu Pillai, and Pantaloon chief Kishore Biyani among others. The chain was also nominated for the Department Store of the Year.
The Retail Destination of the Year was chosen on the basis of how a shopping centre or a store, favoured by locals, tourists and travellers alike for shopping, emerged as a retail destination for consumers and for brands as the most profitable avenue for retailing. Shoppers’ has got the matrix quite right. Little wonder then that selling at Rs 6,700 per annum per sq ft, the revenue of Rs 404 crore that it accrued in the last fiscal saw a net profit of Rs 14 crore i.e. 3.46 per cent. Sales grew by 35 per cent in the last year.
With a First Citizen member base of more than 300,000, it bagged the Superbrand status in 2003 and has been a favourite shoppers’ haunt luring young and the old alike with promotional events like designer of the year, WWF promos, festival of Britain in India, Tycoon Tie festival, great store robbery, Valentine’s Day, Men in Vogue, Buy and Fly to the Seven Wonders festival, wardrobe exchange offer and India shopping festival.
To ensure customer satisfaction, there is a separate cell for alterations and exchanges with service guarantee of alteration within 29 minutes and for Golden Glow customers, home delivery of alterations within 24 hrs. Also,
