The Hindu Business Line : Future Group turns focus on building private labels

Mumbai, Nov. 20 The Future Group has marked an investment of Rs 200 crore towards building its private labels business with intentions of reaching a revenue sales turnover of Rs 10,000 crore by the year 2012. Its flagship company Pantaloon Retail is expected to become a full fledged ‘consumption’-oriented company with an increased focus on building private labels through the group’s vertical — Future Brands.

At a press conference, Mr Santosh Desai, CEO, Future Brands, said, “India is still an unbranded country with only 8 per cent of goods being branded. There is now a strategic approach to building private brands as it would drive our margins and we would have better negotiating powers with manufacturers.”

Taking on the might of MNCs with its private brands, the Future Group is now poised to pit itself against the companies manufacturing similar products in categories ranging from FMCG to consumer durables. “There is no reason why we cannot be on par with the MNC companies and grow even larger than them with our brands. We expect our private labels to contribute an additional 10 per cent to our existing margins,” added Mr Kishore Biyani, CEO, Future Group. Bringing in professionals to build its private label business further, the Future Group recently hired Mr S. Ravindranath (former head of foods at HUL) and Mr Peter Baker, Ex CEO, Dabur H&B stores, to build its brands.

In the past it has roped in other professionals such as Mr Damodar Mall and Mr Sadashiv Nayak (both formerly with HUL), Mr Shashi Kalathil (former head of marketing at Pepsi), Mr Kailash Bhatia (founder of ColorPlus) while Mr Desai himself is a former head of ad agency Mc Cann Erickson.

Added Mr Desai, “Retailers were meant to provide distribution access but the world has now changed. It is the retailer who is now the closest to the customer. MNCs have built brands which are not meant for India and this gives us an opportunity to build brands for the Indian market.”

Consumer brands

Currently some of the group’s consumer brands are John Miller, Indigo Nation, DJ&C in apparel and FMCG brands such as Tasty Treat, Care Mate, Fresh ’n Pure followed by consumer durable brands such as Koryo and Sensei.

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