The Hindu Business Line : `Indian retail industry likely to emerge the largest'

The Indian retail industry is likely to emerge as the largest in the world according to experts speaking at an international conference on Private Labelling in Food — Gaining Shelf Space and Market Share organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in conjunction with Agro Tech 2006 at Chandigarh.

"Modern retail started in India a decade ago and now accounts for 35 per cent of the retail industry. By 2020, this may surpass 70 per cent and the 10,000 new retail stores in the pipeline would cover over 2.5 lakhsq feet," said a press release quoting Mr Amit Vaishnav, Managing Director of Chennai-based Mega Food Company.

private labelling

Talking of structuring private labels, Mr Jean-Christophe Goarin, Consultant, GOA Consulting, said, "European markets have a long-standing practice of private labelling which has seen continuous growth.

The perfect example is Marks & Spencer that has been there for almost a century.

In India, success has been seen in Westside, a department store, which only sells private labels and in Pantaloons, which has mixed brands.

Food brands are generally restricted to pulses. India is a market driven by suppliers and MRPs driven with low margins and short payment terms."

Mr S. Venkatraman, Director - Food & Agribusiness Advisory, Rabo India, talked about global trends in food labelling, food servicing in India and food retailing beyond urban India.

"Foreign traders are into food, clothing, furniture and furnishings, while Indians focus only on food. In countries such as India and China, people are moving from mass consumption to convenience food technology.

"The trend of ready-to-eat food is slowly catching on. Food servicing market is estimated at Rs 35,000 crore where the share of private labels is less than 5 per cent. Rural India is in itself a big market comprising over six lakh villages," Mr Venkatraman pointed out.