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Organized Retailing and Indian Corporate Sector
Why India Inc is working at retailing in a big way?
Contributed by -
Amit Lall,
PGDM (Mktg), Nirma Institute of Management, Ahmedabad,
Management Trainee, Pantaloon Retail India Limited.
Current State and Future Potential
Organized retailing in India has come of age especially during the
last decade. The liberalization measures post 1991 fuelled the growth
of the industry. Many large chains like the Tata, RPG, Raheja's and
the Piramal, to name a few, joined the retail bandwagon and have now
started coming out of the red after years of making losses and
recovering costs. Over these years Indian retailing has evolved from
largely informal and disorganized marketplace to a more corporatized
industry (we shall refer to this sector as industry despite the
Government's hesitation in granting it the status of one).
The organized retailing in India has already shot past the Rs. 200 Bn
mark and is expected to achieve Rs. 298 Bn by year 2005 (Source:
Vision 2005 Document, KSA-Technopak). India has over 12.5 Mn retail
outlets, though most of it is fragmented and unorganised.
Entry Of Corporate Sector Into Retailing
The Indian Retailing sector has been largely unorganized in the post
independence period, to the most part untouched by corporate business
principles. It was only in 1980s when the economy started to be
opened, the situation began to change. Companies like Bombay Dyeing,
Raymond and Grasim from the textiles sector were the first ones from
the corporate world to step into the retailing by opening their own
outlets. Titan's is another successful story of a corporate creating
a great retailing concept, by establishing a series of elegant watch
showrooms across the country.
The post liberalization era witnessed new wave of entrants in the
sector with large conglomerates like Tatas, the RPG Group, Rahejas
and the Piramals investing in the sector. Various other behemoths of
the Indian corporate sector like the Birlas, the Hero Group and
Reliance have expressed their intention of joining the Indian retail
foray.
Hero Group has recently declared its plan to enter retailing by
opening retail stores on the lines of 7-11 Stores. The Birlas have
marked their presence by acquiring Madura Garments, while Reliance
plans to develop its retail venture and fuel retail network
simultaneously. Even the public sector oil companies like HPCL, IOCL
and BPCL realized their potential for entering into retailing by
leveraging their supply chain network.
Here are a few reasons for the corporate sector to enter into
retailing: -
2nd Most Attractive Retail Market:
AT Kearney has ranked India as the second most attractive retail
market after Russia, in its Global Retail Development Index 2004
report. Going three ranks up and surpassing China, in contrast to
last years position, India has achieved the second position despite
of stringent FDI rules and regulations. The improvement in living
standards and continuing economic growth (40% growth in GDP between
1999 and 2003) has been the major reasons behind international
retailers gaining confidence in the Indian retail market. Other
reasons include increase in per capita income by one-third between
1999 and 2003 and the market size of the country that offers
tremendous promise as its population is expected to surpass China by
year 2050.
Low Penetration of the Organized Retail Sector:
The mere 2% share of the organized retail sector in the total Indian
retail market worth Rs. 10000 Bn makes it a hot cake for Indian
corporate sector. With increasing number of nuclear families, working
women, greater work pressure and increased commuting time,
convenience has become an integral part of shopping. Customers want
all-under-one-roof places to shop that offers them convenience and
variety. This offers an excellent incentive to the corporate sector
to join the retail bandwagon.
Exceptionally High Growth Rate:
The sector has witnessed spiralling growth rate and will continue
with the same for a couple of years. The present size of the
organized retail market has shot past the Rs. 200 Bn mark and is
expected to touch Rs. 298 Bn by 2005 (Source: Vision 2005 document,
KSA-Technopak) and Rs. 372 Bn by year 2007 (ETIG, Changing Gears -
Retailing In India).
Increase in Consumer Spending and Shift in Consumer Buying Behavior:
According to KSA-Consumer Outlook 2003 study the consumer spending
grew by 12% and that consumer confidence is higher than any other
Asia-Pacific market. The consumer spending patterns are changing with
the consumers moving beyond basic necessities to acquire trappings of
comfort, luxury and style. With higher disposable incomes and easier
funding options, the 285 million strong Indian middle-class is
creating a retail boom like never before.
Improved Living Standards:
The Global Retail Development Index 2004 has placed India on a higher
Country Risk with a score of 62, which is due to increased living
standards and continued economic growth. This improvement in living
standards has fuelled the desire among shoppers to get the best in
terms of product, price, service and satisfaction. Corporate sector
companies are in a better position to satiate the customer
expectations with shopping satisfaction, entertainment, quality
products, polite salespersons, right product information and
discounts.
Operational Competitive Advantage:
Having developed strong processes and world-class infrastructure, the
corporate sector companies can have the advantage over other
retailers who are busy addressing such bottlenecks as supply chain
and poor operational efficiency. In its Vision 2005 document, KSA-
Technopak has identified this as an opportunity for the entrants with
inherent high operational efficiencies.
Why Diversify?
For corporate players entering retailing would mean complete
diversification from their current business activities. But looking
at the attractiveness of the potential of the Indian retail market it
is the most apt time for Indian corporate sector to join the race
since foreign retailers have still not entered India due to FDI
restrictions.
Key Bottlenecks Facing Indian Retailing Industry
For Indian retail industry to realize its potential, however a number
of bottlenecks have to be removed. Following are some such areas as
identified by the thought leaders of the Indian retail industry KSA-
Technopak, Images and Fitch: -
Lack of Professional Training:
Retail can prove to be a large provider of employment to
underqualified youth. Consider this, for every Rs. 200 Crore of
sales, a retailer could directly employ at minimum wages, over a
thousand people. If the share of organized retail reaches 10%, this
would require 300000 new workers. However there is very little
technical training available to create such a large workforce.
Considering the potential of the industry, we need to have more
institutes and professional organizations imparting retail education
and training in India.
Lack of FDI:
Since organized retailing in India is yet to be provided industry
status by the Government, as a consequence FDI is not permitted in
retailing. The Government has not allowed FDI in retailing for the
fear that small retailers would be displaced. On the other hand,
without the FDI the industry is deprived of access to foreign
technologies that is imperative for faster growth. Retailing is a
technology-oriented industry. The Government may achieve its motive
of protecting the small retailers by not allowing FDI in retailing in
the short run, but in the long run we will loose many lucrative
opportunities and technological innovations. This would also hinder
the path of the domestic industry to become internationally
competitive. In order to facilitate faster growth and inculcation of
better technologies, liberalization of FDI in retailing is imperative.
Lack of Industry Status:
Despite significant effort, this area remains devoid of industry
status. As a result, there is no government sponsor trying to
identify and resolve key bottlenecks arising to allow for the rapid
growth of the sector. As an outcome, even permitting FDI in retailing
is getting hindered.
Real Estate Bottlenecks: Real estate is likely to be the single
largest bottleneck preventing the rapid growth of the sector,
especially large formats within the key metro towns of Mumbai, Delhi
and Kolkata. There is a need to deregulate the land market, have
easier zoning provisions, improve and standardize building
specifications, introduce zoning for larger retail premises in new
constructions as well as other similar measures to enable easier
access to land.
Lack of Uniform Tax Structure: India lacks a uniform tax structure as
a result of which the path of setting up a truly national retailing
chain is obstructed. The present retail chains, in spite of claiming
to be national chains are restricted to certain regions of the
country. Players are confined to state barriers. Since retailing is
essentially a business of supplying commodities to locations far from
production facilities, a differential tax system in different states
is creating hindrance in the fast development of this industry. For
organized retailing to truly take off, it is imperative to introduce
a single value-added tax system, with no entry/exit taxes. This will
allow retailers to optimise their sourcing, supply chain and other
operations and thereby creating truly national retail chains.
Lack of Single Window Clearance Mechanisms:
Multiple clearance requirements and constraining regulations create
unnecessary hassles for modern format players. For example, retailers
need to deal with multiple agencies, e.g., several land and labour
authorities at the state government level while setting up new stores
in a process that takes anywhere between one month to a year. In
addition, multiple license requirements and restrictive labour laws
constrain ongoing operations. Hypermarkets typically need to get over
16 licenses for stocking groceries, e.g., liquor, and food products.
It is imperative that state governments set up single window
clearance mechanisms and a nodal department to reduce the bother
involved for modern format retailers.
Restrictive Labour Laws:
Organized retailing is a 24/7 business. But, in India stringent
labour rules and regulations have restricted this to a great extent.
The sector is unable to employ staff on a contractual basis. This
makes it difficult to manage 365-days a year operations. Retailers
are required to take special clearance for extended working hours and
round the year operations from the labour department.