Kishore Biyani got his start in the fashion business in college when he sold 200 meters of stonewashed fabric to shops in Mumbai. Some years later his entrepreneurial instinct led him to launch a brand of fabric for men’s trousers–WBB or simply White, Blue and Brown–an abbreviation of the three most popular colors for trousers then. WBB lived its life and in 1985 he drew his first blood in retail when he set up a 400-sq.-foot (37-sq.- meter) shop to sell readymade trousers for men. Later, Biyani moved on to the distributorship of denims made by India and Asia’s largest producer of denim. At age 26, Biyani incorporated Manz Wear Private Limited in 1987 with seed capital of of Rs 7 lakh ($16,000 approximately). Manz Wear went on to become Pantaloon Fashion and subsequently Pantaloon Retail. It was in 2006 that the company was rechristened Future Group.With the retail-driven multiple formats he runs with his talented team, Biyani’s immediate aim is to touch the one billion dollar mark and by 2011-12 to tote up his total trade to Rs 30,000 crore ($7 billion). The retail footprint he hopes to acquire across various formats in India hovers around 30 million sq. feet (2.8 million sq. meters).
SI:You are called the Father of Modern Retail in India. When you were just starting out no one had faith in you.You are also referred to as the maverick businessman. What are the feelings that warred in you then and now?
Kishore Biyani: It is a lot of work that has gone in it. We know that somebody calls us raja, maharaja, badshaah [king]; father of retail is something that I've heard of the first or second time. Things were different then; there was rejection, disbelief, skepticism; people wondered if they should join us or not, they should deal with us or not. I remember, there were premium brands who never wanted to deal with us when we were starting Central or Pantaloons. But now people want to meet us, enter into joint ventures. Things are different now. They were right then and now also; people have to prove themselves in this world.
You cater to the Indian consumer. What is that one thing about this consumer, when you think that yes, I've got my finger on the pulse?
I think they are aware already, that they want to move to the next level, so we have to be always ready for that. I can't say one thing about it; every three years the profile of the consumers undergoes a change.
What is your latest study on it?
The latest study says that they are now looking for a meaningful existence.
How do you combine that purpose with fashion?
That's what we have to discover, that we have to give them fashion that gives them a sense of purpose. That's what we have currently discovered and we have been working on.
Your philosophy looks slightly to the West, but yet it remains couched in the India of today. How do you see fashion evolving in the country?
Fashion is not evolving during the fashion weeks, that's for sure. I think fashion is emerging from the small town India; it is emerging from the fashion capitals of Mumbai and Delhi also. India doesn't have any particular fashion notions so, in a sense, it is emerging from everywhere.
What new things are you planning?
We are looking at the spends of the Indian consumer. If you look at the fashion side, people are spending more on jeans and shirts, trousers, lingerie, sportswear or swimwear. We have every category with us, starting from casualwear to ethnicwear to everything.
So what is the next milestone you are looking at?
I think sportswear is another business that we are looking at.We have quite a few brands including Speedo, Converse, Spalding and more. We are coming out with many more new brands. We can't talk about it now. Planet Sports is a brand that we are repositioning and also giving it a younger look and identity with a new logo. This new avatar would convey readiness, speed agility and modernism. But, we are also building a new sportswear brand which will be launched soon. The brand that we will come out with would be activewear. It would be launched in Big Bazaar. In China the largest sportswear brand is a local brand. That’s the opportunity we believe we have in this country.We hope to make it the largest sportswear brand in the country, an Indian brand with an Indian ethos and the Indian sporting attitude. And, since we are building up this brand at Big Bazaar, the price range would be mass. We are also exploring who best would fit in as a brand ambassador.
Today sportswear has a definition that goes beyond mere activewear or performancewear. How do you view the scenario?
For us, the manner in which consumers respond to a particular category or a brand is how we respond to it. If consumers are wearing sportswear to office, let it be.We can’t change the way customers think. Fashion is what you think, what the customer feels.
What is your next store format?
The next store would be Ethnicity, each sprawled over 20,000 to 25,000 sq. feet. It would provide everything ethnic, starting from menswear, womenswear and kidswear. The positioning is ethnicity, where everything is Indian. Ethnicity is an absolutely new concept.... The first store will shortly come up in Baroda and the next in Mumbai.We have signed up three stores.
There has been talk that there is going to be a shakeout in the industry sooner than later. What retail models do you think will remain in India?
I think a retail model will be successful if it understands its customers. It could be a supermarket, a hypermarket or a departmental store or specialty store. All kind of retail formats would exist; there will be some luxury retail also. Everything will not succeed, but part of it will.
What do you think would succeed?
That will be difficult to predict. I think a good mall with good tenant mix and developers would succeed. I think, to succeed, everybody needs to understand the country called India. I think anybody who has deeper pockets and believes in the business of consumption would survive.
What do you have to consider when you are dealing with foreign brands?
We respect the brand, the positioning and we explain them the Indian context where they can fit it; we maintain the sensitivity of the brand and try to work around the Indian sensitivity.
What strikes you when you are talking to the international people?
They deal with mature customers and an evolved market; whereas when it comes to evolving customers like ours and the emerging markets, the thinking is very different. Their understanding is of a mature market and ours is of an emerging market; we have to balance both. It's a challenge.
How do you meet this challenge?
We look for a partnership and relationship. We put in across our point of view and whosoever is receptive, we try to align with them. The Indian sensibilities can't be ignored.
Profit with integrity. There has been a lot of talk about it. What is your take on it?
Irrespective. I think one should stand by their own principles and policies. You should be honest to oneself and everyone who works along with you, and that's profit with integrity.We strongly believe in the word which we use internally in our organization, i.e. win, win, win. Our customers should win, we should win and our supplier should win. Everybody should earn, it should not be on the cost of somebody. It is possible.
What would you say was the turning point for Future Group? Or, have there been too many?
There were too many turning points. But personally speaking it would be the opening of the Big Bazaar. When we saw the serpentine queues outside it, we knew there was something that was connecting it with people.We had got something right.
The queue outside the Pantaloons store in Kolkata, whenever we go on sale, also speaks about the success story. Then we opened the seamless Central, which also worked for us. It was then I think that people started accepting us. After we had launched the three formats and when all of them began doing well, that is when the acceptance level got high.
