The Dussehra day is turning out to be a bonanza time for retailers as Gujaratis, who prefer to buy vehicles, houses, and other expensive durables on this auspicious day, are thronging to luxury show rooms in large numbers.

Benchmark Cars- a Mercedes Benz dealer outlet in Ahmedabad– according to its Vice President Paras Somani, has already sold 45 units of Mercedes luxury cars this month. This year’s selling season began after completion of inauspicious Shraddha (Pitra Paksha) period, ten days ago.

“We delivered 12 models of Mercedes Benz including E-Class and Special Edition C-Class on Dussehra today,” said Somani. “So far, 45 Mercedes Benz have been sold from our outlet, this month,” he added.

Audi, another brand of luxury car which accounts for 48 per cent of market share in luxury car segment of Gujarat, also registered robust business on the Dussehra day.

For Landmark, a car retail franchise, which sells expensive cars of Honda brand and which has car showrooms in all major cities of Gujarat, this has been the best month ever for sales. According to Sanjay Thakkar, its Managing Director, the dealership is close to touching the magic number of selling 100 cars this month.

While, Supplyco (Kerala State Civil Supplies Corporation), a state government retailer, has planned to celebrate the festival beginning the 28th August, 2009, private sector retail players have also geared up for the occasion with several mouth-watering shopping offers for their customers.

Supplyco is hoping to garner sales of Rs 210 crore this Onam by setting up five Metro People’s Bazaars and 12 Town People’s Bazaars that will cater to customer needs of essential commodities and other household products at reasonable prices during the festival time.

Sony, the leading Japanese consumer electronic brand, is all set to garner festive season business of Rs 75 crore, this Onam. Apart from promoting various other products in its range, Sony is expecting to sell 20,000 CTVs (LCDs) and 10,000 digicams during the period.

Whirlpool, the well known brand of home appliances, is ready to storm the market with a wide range of washing machines and other durable products. The brand is expecting to garner sales of Rs 100 crore by selling 250,000 appliances this year. The brand sold 170,000 appliances last year.

Tanishq, the leading gold jewellery maker owned by Tatas-led Titan, is offering gifts worth Rs 2 lakh at each store in Kerala. Besides, it is also freeing its customers from obligation of paying last installment under Golden Harvest Savings Scheme of the company.

Panasonic India, the leading consumer electronics company, is hoping to double its sales during the Onam festival in Kerala. The durables brand is expecting to achieve Rs 40 crore worth business this year compared to Rs 20 crore in the previous year by offering an exchange and upgrade offer to its customers. Panasonic will exchange and/or upgrade old colour TV sets with new CTV, LCD or plasma TV sets.

Sonata, the leading wrist watch maker, is offering 20 per cent special ‘Onam’ discount on its products. Sonata, according to its Regional Sales Manager Anand Moorthy, is looking at creating a distinct style and personality for its customers with the season’s ‘must have’ accessory.

Zuari Furniture, a K K Birla company, has also targeted big jump in the festive business this year. The brand, despite global economic meltdown, has registered 55 per cent growth this year.

Philips India, the leading consumer durables company, is looking at 40 per cent growth in its sales and is expecting to achieve sales worth Rs 60 crore for consumer electronic products during the quarter. It is offering free gifts and special prices on its products like CTVs and DVD players, among others.

Zapp, the kidswear brand, which currently operates six stores in the state, has decided to bring cheer to faces of poor children this Onam by partnering with ‘SOS Children’s Village.’ The brand will be gifting toys/books to children from poor families through its outlets at Ernakulam and Edappally.

Telecom service provider MTS, a mobile telephony brand of Sistema Shyam TeleServices Limited (SSTL), has announced special plans, called MSaver 98 and MSaver 199, exclusively for its customers in Kerala on the occasion of Onam. Even Tata Telecom, apart from special tariffs for the occasion, has come out with gift and other offers for its prepaid customers.

Even State Bank of India (SBI) has reduced interest rates on consumer loans as “Onam Gift.’ The bank is offering interest rates of 7 per cent on housing loans and 8 per cent on car loans to its consumers.

Hidesign, which has earlier entere into an agreement with Kishore Biyani-led Future group for launching a range of affordable leather accessories designed specifically to meet Indian needs, is planning to roll out these products under the brand name of Holii. The products are slated to be launched in the next month across major cities of the country.

According to Hidesign’s President Dilip Kapur, “Our new brand is completely a new concept and is very Indian in terms of its designs. We will be working closely with the Future Group, where they will provide expertise in retail and operations while we will be associated with brand building and design.”

Holii range of products will be across Pantaloon Retail’s department format stores located across all the major cities in the country.

As part of the agreement, Hidesign will sell its new range of products in The company will be introducing the new range in around 30 shop

Holii range of leather accessories is expected to garner a business of Rs 25 crore over a period of the next two years.

Apart from Holii, the company is also planning to unveil another collection of new accessories that has been designed by well known fashion designer Rohit Bal. Talking about this collection, the brand name of which is yet to be revealed, Kapur said, “The design will be Indian and will be out in the market by next month. This is the first time an Indian designer’s collection of our range will be sold in all the big cities outside India like Milan, New York.”

Apart from the company’s own exclusive stores, the new collection will be also be sold through 30-odd of Pantaloon and Shoppers’ Stops retail chains across the country.

Speaking about own stores, Kapoor said that the company will set up 12 exclusive stores this fiscal, of which 8 have already become operational. “We have already opened eight exclusive stores and will open 4 in the coming months,” said Kapur.

The premium accessories retailer currently operates 48 lifestyle stores across the country and is also present in 23 deveoped markets globally.

The retailer is already operating similar stores in Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Dhanbad, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Jalandhar, Jamnagar, Jamshedpur, Jodhpur and Vizag.

“We are delighted to offer consumers an unparalleled range of jewellery, backed by the assurance of hallmarked gold and certified diamonds, in an unmatched shopping ambience. We are confident that the Reliance Jewels experience will be appreciated by our customers here.” said Bijou Kurien, president and chief executive – Lifestyle, Reliance Retail Ltd., on the occassion.

The store offers a wide range of gold, diamond and wedding jewellery, catering to all jewellery needs of its customers under one roof.

The store loke its counterparts in the country offers jewellery designs numbering over 10,000. These designs incorporate creative art forms from different parts of the country.

While offering high quality products at affordable prices, the retailer also offers customised jewellery making services. To mark the unveiling of its 1st store in Mumbai, the company is offering a promotion scheme of 50 percent discount on making charges for gold jewellery and upto 100 percent discount on making charges for diamond jewellery.

Reliance Jewels also backs its portfolio with guarantee of purity. It offers 100 percent BIS Hallmarked Gold used in every gold jewellery piece and diamonds certified by Independent Certification Laboratories.

Reliance Jewels, a speciality format of Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Retail, which specialises in offering a wide range of certified gold, gold jewellery, and diamond jewellery, launched its 12th store in the National Capital Region (NCR). The new store is located at the Gold Souk Mall in Sushant Lok-1, in Gurgaon. Reliance Jewels offers more than 10,000 stunning designs of jewellery from all regions of rhe country.

“We are delighted to bring the Reliance Jewels experience to the people residing in the NCR. It has always been the endeavour of Reliance to provide consumers with a wide range of high quality products at competitive prices. Reliance Jewels is another step in that direction- we offer consumers an unparalleled range of jewellery, backed by the assurance of hallmarked gold and certified diamonds, in an unmatched shopping ambience. We are confident that the Reliance Jewels experience will be appreciated by our customers here,” said Bijou Kurien, President and Chief Executive – Lifestyle, on the occasion.

To celebrate the occasion and to attract the customers, Reliance Jewels has subject to conditions offered a limited period special introductory discount of Rs. 50/- per gram on gold used in gold jewellery and up to 100% discount on making charges for Diamond Jewellery.

The first Reliance Jewels store was opened on 17th November, 2007. According to the original plan Reliance had targeted to open 300 speciality jewellery stores and garner 10 per cent of the total market overtaking the business of another jewellery retailer Tanishque, owned by Titan Ltd of Tata group.

Global financial meltdown resulting in collapse of capital markets had its impact on India’s HNWIs (high networth individuals or dollar millionaires), as their number dwindled by 39,000 (or 31.6 per cent) from 123,000 (2008) compared to 84,000 in the previous year (2007). This is the first drop recorded for India in the past seven years.

An HNWI is defined as the one who owns net assets of at least $1 million, excluding his/her primary residence and consumables. HNWIs are among the largest spending consumers patronising purchase of lifestyle and luxury products.

These are findings of the report titled “World Wealth Report” released by DSP Merrill Lynch and Capgemini, investment banking firms, on Thursday.

“India’s HNWI (high net worth individuals) population shrunk 31.6 per cent to 84,000, the second largest decline in the world, after posting the fastest rate of growth (up 22.7 per cent) in 2007,” said the report.

“India, still an emerging economy, suffered declining global demand for its goods and services and a hefty drop in market capitalisation of 64.1 per cent in 2008,” adds the report.

Globally, HNWIs are concentrated mainly in North America, Europe and Asia. While their combined wealth in 2008 dropped by 19.5 per cent to $32.8 trillion, their overall number was down by 14.9 per cent to 8.6 million.

This was a direct consequence of global market capitalisation plummeting by $30 trillion, or nearly 50 per cent, during the year.

Responding to the crisis in equity markets, HNWIs poured more money into fixed income, cash-based investments, and real estate, said Pradeep Dokania, DSP Merrill Lynch managing director and global private client head.

“HNWIs significantly increased allocations in art and jewellery, gems and watches in 2008 compared to pre-crises levels in 2006, as alternative flight to safety,” added Salil Parekh, Capgemini, CEO, financial services, India, Asia SBU.

The report, however, is quite upbeat on hopes of economic activity gain momentum in the coming years. It predicts an annualised growth rate of 8.1 per cent until 2013 and expects the overall wealth to rise to $48.5 trillion by then.

“HNWI financial wealth will grow to $48.5 trillion by 2013, advancing at an annualised rate of 8.1 per cent driven by the recovery in asset prices as the global economy and financial system right themselves,” says the report.

Our earlier report on the subject:

Shoppers’ Stop, among the country’s pioneering and largest lifestyle department store format retailers, is going to expand its operations by opening 12 new stores in the coming three years. Of the 12 new stores, while four stores will be opened this year, the balance eight stores will be opened during the subsequent two years. In the current year, Shoppers’ Stop proposes to open stores at Ahmedabad, Bangalore, and Hyderabad.

One of the triggers for expansion is steep fall in rentals of space in malls. The property rentals have come down as much as 35 to 40 per cent from their peak in the past two years as a consequence of global economic meltdown.

The expansion at an average store area of 55,000 sq ft per store will entail adding new retail space of 650,000 sq ft. This expansion, at an average cost of Rs 1,400 per sq ft on interiors etc, will require a capex of Rs 91 crore. Expansion will also entail working capital requirement of around Rs 30 crore at an average cost of Rs 400 to Rs 500 per sq ft on inventories. (via)

According Govind Shrikhande, Chief Executive Officer, Shoppers’ Stop, the capex requirement of Rs 91 crore will mostly be met by internal accruals of the company, though some element of equity and debt may also be infused to fund the cost of expansion. Shoppers’ Stop has an undrawn credit line of Rs 90 crore.

The retailer in a review of its business operations has interestingly closed down over a dozen unprofitable stores during the last fiscal. It has also come out of its joint venture with Argos– the UK-based catalogue retailer. Similarly, the retailer has also closed three ‘Crossword’ bookstores and an airport restaurant ‘Stop & Go’ which was being run at Mumbai International Airport.

In another move to get out of food business, the retailer has also decided to shut down its Brio chain. The new coffee outlets, under an agreement, will now be run by ‘Cafe Coffee Day,’ the welknown cofffee restaurant chain.

Apart from 26 stores of flagship chain Shoppers Stop being run by the retailer, the company also operates a number of niche businesses either on its own or under franchise/ licencee arrangements with global retail brands of repute. Some of the welknown retail chains operated by the company include, Mother Care, Crossword, Home Stop, MAC, Clinique & EStee Lauder, Arcelia, and Nuance, among others. The retailer, however, is not envisaging big expansion for its niche retail businesses this year.

After buoyancy of retail business during 2006-07 and 2007-08, the previous financial year (2008-09) proved to be one of the most difficult years for most organised retailers including Shoppers’ Stop. The difficult situation is likely to continue until the end of calendar 2009. Against sharp increase of 20 per cent in same store sales of Q4 in 2007-08, Shoppers Stop has witnessed a decline of 3 per cent in the Q4 same store sales of 2008-09.

Gitanjali Group, one of the country’s largest jewellery makers, is planning to sell around 400 kilograms of gold coins during Akshaya Tritiya– an auspicious day in Hindu calendar. The demand for precious yellow metal always remains very high during this festival. Akshay Tritiya will be celebrated in the country on April 27, this year.

Founded at Surat in 1966, the $1 billion Gitanjali group boasts of 25 jewellery brands including Asmi, D’damas, Nakshatra, Gili, Diya, and Sangini, among others. The group has now joined hands with the state owned MMTC to form a 74:26 joint venture to sell pure gold to customers across the country. The joint venture is setting up a chain of retail stores under the brand name of ‘Shuddhi-Sampurna Viswas.’

‘Shuddhi-Sampurna Viswas,’ has launched its first store in south Delhi. The store was inaugurated by film star Lara Dutta. Lara Dutta is also the brand ambassador of Gitanjali group’s D’damas brand of diamond jewellery. According to Sanjeev Batra, CMD, MMTC, the joint venture will set up around 25 stores this year, while 60 more stores will be set up in the next year.

According to Mehul Choksi, MD, Gitanjali group, MMTC, being the country’s largest gold trader, provides a strategic fit to Gitanjali to make forays into the gold jewellery, after the group has created a strong market for its diamond brands.

Currently, Gitanjali operates 150 exclusive stores. However, in a major expansion drive, it has planned to increase their tally three-fold to 450 stores. The new stores, according to Choksi, are expected to come up in the next 18-odd months at an estmated investment of over Rs 300 crore.

Anaanta, a wellness brand of Facets Lifestyle, has decided to set up a retail chain of 20 wellness stores beginning today.

The first wellness spa store to be called “Anantaa Wellness Spa” is slated to be launched today (19th April, 2009) in Ahmedabad, the commercial capital city of Gujarat. Faucet Lifestyle, managed by Sapna Begani, Director, is a division of Ahmedabad-based Forever Precious Jewellery & Diamond Limited.

The Anaanta Spa at Ahmedabad, set up at an investment of Rs 15 crore, is spread over an area of 10,000 sq ft. “We have invested Rs 15 crore for the 10,000 sq ft centre, which combines all the aspects of body building, fitness, training, conditioning, yoga, beauty and grooming under one roof. Anantaa’s fitness center is the first and the only one in India that has invested in huber machines from LPG systems. Huber is an exclusive technology to improve posture, strengthen muscle chains, and optimize mind and body coordination,” said Begani.

Anantaa is perhaps also the first and only wellness centre that offers Oxy Spa Slimming. Oxy Spa is a unique process that in combination with the huber LPG treatment is used for burning body fat. This, according to Begani, can also be used for a wide range of body and face treatments including tattoo removals. The Spa offers gym fitness solutions, spa well-being, nutritional counselling and beauty therapies all under one roof.

Begani informed the media persons that Anantaa will launch 20 spas over a period of the next three years. “Next we will launch it in Baroda and Surat and then go to other cities,” said Begani.

Gitajali is planning to launch 30 new ‘Gitanjali Jewels’ stores across the country, to its already existing retail chain of 38 stores. These stores are expected to come up in short time of just four months. Some of the stores will be set up in tier III towns, as well.

“We are looking at 30 new branded jewellery outlets across the country in the next four months. Some of these outlets would also come up in Tier-III towns of the country as we believe that there is a huge potential for sale of branded jewellery items in these locations,” said Rajesh Baid, Head (Retail Projects), Gitanjali Jewels, while speaking to media persons on the occasion of the opening of its first store at Bhubaneswar in Orissa.

The group is quite buoyent on business potential of branded jewellery in Orissa. It is planning to open another store next month in the steel city of Rourkela.

“We believe that there is a very good demand for branded jewellery products in Orissa as the state recorded sales worth Rs 85-90 crore of our products in 2007-08. The sales are going to pick up significantly now that we have opened our exclusive outlet in the state,” added Baid.

Besides selling branded jewellery at its stores, Gitanjali will also offer branded wrist watches to its customers. The wrist watches, priced up to Rs 60,000, will be imported mainly from Switzerland and Italy.

The group is also actively engaged in selling fashion lifestyle and luxury products through 125 store outlets, 38 of which are branded jewellery stores.

Gitanjali Gems Limited, a DTC sightholder, is one of the largest integrated diamond and jewellery manufacturers and retailers in India. Gitanjali is also building two SEZs, including one in Hyderabad. This SEZ spread over an area of 200 acres is among the largest SEZs of its kind in India.

Concerned with alarming drop in sales of Gold in India- the world’s largest consumer market– the World Gold Council (WGC) has now drawn plans to bring the precious metal within the easy reach of even small consumers. The Council is planning to sale gold even at Call Centres and Saree Shops, among others, in addition to Post Offices. In fact, WGC has already begun an experiment of selling gold at saree shops with Nalini saree shop in Chennai. The response is said to be encouraging.

The idea for expanding the network for retailing gold, according to WGC’s India MD, Ajay Mitra, is to make it available in every nook and corner of this vast country. WGC has identified 4,000 such shops which can spare space for small jewellery stores through a profit-sharing arrangement.

The import of gold in India, which used to import an average of 60 tonnes a month, according to a BS report, has come down to zero in the past two months.

WGC is even identifying new festivals to promote sales of Gold in India. Currently, nine occasions like Dhan Teras (two days prior to Diwali) are considered auspicious for buying the yellow metal. WGC has come out with a list of 86 such national and regional festivals/ occasions that may be considered “gold buying occasions.” This would mean that the Council would be able to promote purchase of Gold almost every fourth day. Would this not be a case of ‘overkill’ is a matter of debate among marketing experts.

According to Mitra, estimated 800 million people in India have a desire to buy gold in small quantities, but are unable to do so due to the perception that it was beyond their means. “Our aim is to reach out to this section of potential buyers and correct that perception,” said Mitra.

Aerens Gold Souk (AGS) Luxury Retail, a Delhi-based venture of Aerens family, which presently operates two Gold Souks at Gurgaon and Ludhiana, is preparing itself to launch a Rs 250 crore multi-specialty mall in the last quarter of 2010. The mall is coming up at Vandalur, near Chennai. The group has also set up Gold & Diamond Parks in Gurgaon and Kochi, while it has established a Wedding Mall in Delhi.

Incidentally, Souk, like Bazaar, is a word used for ‘marketplace in northern Africa or the Middle East.’ It can also signify a stall in such a marketplace.

According to Ashish Gupta, Vice-Chairman and Joint Managing Director, AGS Group, the work at Vandalur Mall to be called “Gold Souk Grande” is currently in progress. It is expected that the floor for anchor stores in this mall spread over 8 lakh sq ft would be handed over to concerned store owners by the end of 2010.

Almost 70 per cent of the 300 showrooms in the destination mall under construction have already been booked, adds Gupta.

The Gold Souk Grande will house a number of wellknown jewellery brands like Adora, Kiah, Celeste, Swaranjali, among others, from all over the world. Apart from jewellery stores, the mall will also house hypermarket, food court, and a miltiplex. The mall will also have brand and vanilla anchor stores offering lifestyle products, accessories, electronics, footwear, cosmetics and others.

The Aerens Gold Souk Group is also building a couple of its projects at Jaipur and Kochi. The Kochi project is also likely to become operational soon.

Founded in 1969, the AGS group, has emerged as a diversified real estate company with a portfolio encompassing retail, commercial, township, hospitality, gems & jewellery parks, and SEZ projects, across the country.

DLF Brands, the retail management arm of India’s biggest real estate developer DLF, which plans to bring at least 15 international brands through joint ventures by 2013, has signed yet another agreement to bring fashion products of the US-based design house Donna Karan Studio (DKS) LLC– part of the luxury goods maker LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA– to India.

“We have signed an agreement with Donna Karan Studio. Our plan is to have 28 stores of DKS’s two brands, DKNY and Donna Karan New York across the country within next five years,” said Kelvin Coyle, Managing Director, DLF Brands, on the occassion. The 28 DKS stores are expected to entail an investment of Rs 65 crore.

The luxury retailer will test the waters with the opening of five DKNY stores in Delhi and NCR before foraying into the rest of the country. These stores are expected to be set up in the next five months. Of these five, three stores — DKNY ready-to-wear store (1) DKNY accessories stores (2)– are likely to become operational in Delhi from the next month.

DLF Brands is currently operating 11 stores of seven foreign brands in Delhi, four of which are through JVs. While, DLF Brands hopes to open 40-50 stores across the country by end of 2009, according to Coyle, it wants to take the tally of the number of stores to 600 by 2012-13.

“The company will need around Rs 2,000-2,500 for each square feet of retail space and the total retail space would be of 2.5 lakh square feet,” Coyle said. The total investment could reach up to Rs 750 crore according to an official.

Apart from the agreement with DKS(US), DLF Brands has also entered into retailing agreement with Italian luxury fashion brands, Armani, Ferragamo, Alcott, Boggi, Piquadro, and French luxury brands Sia Home Fashion and Sunglass Hut.

The expansion will be through a mixed model of ownership, namely, franchise and company owned.

The grooming and beauty business, despite the economic slowdown, has been growing in India. “The demand for in-salon skincare treatments is growing at 40-45 per cent annually. We are looking to make our presence felt in the sector,” says Dharmendra Manwani, CEO, Jean Claude Biguine House of Beauty. The demand for in-salon skin care treatments by men is also increasing by 40 per cent per annum, according to a CII reports.

Manwani cites inability of customers, who are availing basic grooming services for years to postpone treatment, as one of main reasons for growth of this business. “Hairstyling, hair-dyeing, manicure, pedicure and threading are the most sought after facilities,” according to Manwani.

The French grooming and beauty brand has also joined hands with Aditya Birla Retail to set up a departmental store format retail chain for men called ‘The Collective.’