Lack of infrastructure major irritant for retail sector

Our Bureau Updated - November 09, 2011 at 09:49 PM.

Mr Sunil Biyani, Director, Future Group, addressing students of Loyola Institute of Business Administration (LIBA), at LIBA Insight 2011, in Chennai on Wednesday. - Bijoy Ghosh

Lack of infrastructure, particularly retail space, is a major stumbling block for the growth of the retail industry in India, said Mr Sunil Biyani, Director, Future Group.

Addressing the audience at the 6th edition of Insight – an annual management symposium, organised here by LIBA, Mr Biyani said the Future Group's ‘innovative concept' for shopping centres will take a few more months to get a final shape.

“We are in talks with a couple of developers, and hope to make an announcement on this soon.”

New model

Earlier, he announced that the company is working on a model for shopping centres which will be profitable to all stakeholders in the project – land owners, mall owners, developers and retailers.

After a period, may be 10 years, the land owner will get back the land to further innovate and redevelop. After finalising the nitty-gritty, he said the company would rollout the pilot model in Mumbai, Hyderabad and Kolkata.

“Upon the success of the model, we will replicate that in other cities,” he said.

Insight focus

The focus of Insight was on the management ideas and standards defined by the renowned management guru late Dr C.K. Prahalad. Earlier, elaborating on the theme, Fr Christie, Director, LIBA, said, “The theme is in alignment with our objective and our earlier efforts to play a more active role in tapping the ‘bottom of the pyramid' market in India.”

Fr Casimir Raj, Director, LIBA – C.K. Prahalad Research Centre for Emerging India, said this is an era of increasing product variety but intense competition and decreasing profit margins.

Marketers, therefore, can not bank on their product range or traditional strategies to grow profitably.

Today, the reason is shifting to value creation and co-creation which is what Dr Prahalad propagated.

Published on November 9, 2011 16:19