The Hindu Business Line : Dairy Farm to focus on service in India

The Hong-Kong based Dairy Farm Group, which owns the Foodworld and Health & Glow brands in India, will focus on service as its business strategy in the coming year.

"We are working on speeding our scanning systems, reducing queuing at the billing counters and providing better customer feedback mechanisms next year," said Mr Norman Yum, CEO.

Speaking to Business Line, Mr Yum said that the retail chain would close the year with 55 Foodworld outlets and 45 Health & Glow outlets. By the end of next year, these numbers would be doubled, he added.

After the formal split with the RPG Group last year - which Mr Yum attributed to "different management styles" - Dairy Farm partnered with the Rajan Raheja Group (which owns the Globus brand) and a couple of private investors to continue its presence in India.

"We are confident of our growth here and that our strategy is moving us in the right direction," Mr Yum said.

Given the boom in the economy and the growth of the retail business in the country, Indian customers would obviously look for better service and value from their shopping experience, he added.

The company is putting in place a hotline that customers could use to give feedback. "This would enable us to analyse our positioning in the market."

The Dairy Farm Group, which operates other brands and formats in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam, will restrict itself to two brands and the supermarket format in the country.

"The existing format and brands fulfil our expansion plans right now. We'll bring in other formats when the Indian demography is ready for it."

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