Indian event management industry

The current size of the event management industry in India is about Rs 800 crore.

This industry caters to events in four broad categories: Leisure, cultural, personal and organisational.

At present, the industry is at a nascent stage and extremely unorganised, comprising mainly homemakers and self-employed businessmen.

Rising household as well as company incomes, growing number of corporate awards and conferences, television and sports events, reality shows and so on are helping this sector grow.

With rising incomes, people are also spending more on weddings, parties and other personal functions.

Few institutes offer specialised training for this industry, but with growing awareness on the opportunities, the number is likely to grow.

External storage drives market in India

The Indian external data storage market is estimated at roughly Rs 900 crore, growing at over 20 per cent since 2007. The mid-tier segment occupies almost one-third of the total market.

Growth in internet surfing and content building has contributed to an increasing demand for high-storage external devices. External hard disks of 250 GB and 320 GB capacities capture 75 per cent of the market demand, followed by portable pen drives, MP3 players and flash drives.

Storage capacity, speed of transfer, reduction in noise and portability are the main drivers for the demand for external storage devices. Of late, many companies have been able to cater to this demand, with storage capacities going higher (above 250 GB in a pen drive) and the devices becoming smaller in size.

A recent trend witnessed is that these devices have become commodity products sold through regular retail channels apart from specialised outlets.

Jewellery export market

The Indian export market for gems and jewellery grew by 1.45 per cent in fiscal year 2009 over the previous year.

The growth in the sector was primarily driven by gold jewellery exports. Exports of cut and polished diamonds saw a decrease.

The UAE is the largest export destination, followed by Hong Kong and the United States.

The Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council is the apex body for this industry involved in promoting Indian gems and jewellery internationally.

Latest price list of textiles items during the year 2009

Videocon - brand makeover

Looking at an aggressive multi-fold growth with an emphasis on technology, quality, innovation, value and services penetration, Videocon Group has unveiled its new eco-friendly green brand identity and tagline: ‘Experience Change’.

The ‘V’ in the new Videocon logo is composed of two animated green, lava-like shapes — called Chouw and Mouw —with distinct identities of their own. Chouw and Mouw are ‘live’ characters, and will be used through a series of short videos to tell simple stories. Both have certain personality traits, based on their physical attributes.

KR Kim, vice-chairman and CEO, Videocon Group, said: “The brand reinvention will involve our employees and keep them engaged, energised and rewarded — as a strong workforce results in even stronger products.”

Subhiksha Debacle

"There cannot be smoke without Fire"
For a long time we have been hearing news of Subhiksha not making timely payments to vendors, having empty shelves as vendors have put Subhiksha in lower priority, reports of people looking out trying to jump the sinking ship, and so on. With the employees PF not being paid (Subhiksha has some 5 Crores of PF dues!) and the Satyam story fresh in everyone's eyes this time things are more in the open.
R Subramanian has been in denial mode for several months has now come out in the open. With empty shelves and deserted showrooms, Subhiksha is sinking and needs "Rs 300 crore immediately'' to re-start operations, the company's founder chairman R Subramanian said. "We got into trouble during the second half of last year, when we were unable to tie up funds for our ongoing operations. That slowly started choking and has lead to paralysis of operations completely now,'' he said.
Detailing his outstandings, Subramanian said that his company owed Rs 45 crore to suppliers, Rs 20 crore to employees as salaries and another Rs 24 crore as rentals for various stores. "Our outstandings are only so much, upon getting Rs 300 crore debt, we will then look at restarting operations'' he added.
Subhikhsa is now on the block available for grabs. Not the best time for Subhiksha to be in the market for sale as valutions for all retailers are pretty low. The contenders are Reliance Retail, Aditya Birla Retail, etc.

Dabur Retail - Dreams turn sour

Blame it on the recession!! Dabur NEW U stores that started operations early last year are on SALE.
Dabur, the Delhi-based FMCG company, has mandated Grant Thornton to get a buyer for its retail venture, people familiar with the matter said. They said Dabur has lost interest in the chain as the economic downturn has made the environment tough for the company to pursue its retail plans.
The venture had a struggling existence marked by slow growth — there are just 11 ‘new-u’ stores — and exits of CEO Peter Baker and merchandise head Graham Fraser a couple of months ago. A Dabur spokesman denied any plans to sell the chain. “In fact, we plan to set up 12 additional stores this year.”
Several retailers in India are facing a tough time with Subhiksha doing down under, and several new entrants having put a hold to thier expansion plans. The redeeming factor is that most of the organised retailers are backed by companies with deep pockets like the Tatas and the Birlas. But we need to keep a close watch as some other retailers might be in silent talks to get out of thier retail businesses.

Mahindra retail

The Mahindra Group is one of the latest entrant to retail sector. Mahindra Intertrade, a fully owned subsidiary of Mahindra and Mahindra, has entered the organised retail business. The retail foray of the Rs 18,000-crore group is through the brand name “Mahindra Retail”.
Despite the recession and the global gloom, Mr Raghunath Murti, Executive Vice-Chairman, Mahindra Intertrade, said, “The group believes that this is the opportune time to enter and extend its distribution business into direct retailing, when the organised retail market is expanding in India. As such, it is a natural extension of the group’s existing business,” he said.
Mahindra Retail plans to invest up to 1 billion rupees during the financial year ending March 2010 to open stores for mother and child products, a company official said on Wednesday.
Mahindra’s entry into retail will likely not attract the kind of opposition the other companies have because of the kind of products it wishes to sell: toys, apparel, and other such products.
The group, which also has interests in automobiles and real estate, has a majority stake in the retail venture, while private equity firm ICICI Ventures will hold 26 percent stake, he said.
The company has so far opened speciality stores for mother and children's products in Ludhiana, Pune and Ahmedabad, said Venkataraman, who inagurated the company's store in Delhi called 'Mom and Me'.
" We will shortly open such stories in Mumbai, Bangalore and other major tier I and II cities," he said.
Apart from distributing toys, games and apparel under licenses from international brands like LEGO, Disney and Mattel, Mom and Me stores will offer products of Mahindra and other Indian companies, he said.
According to industry estimates, India has an organised retail market for mother and child products worth 70 billion rupees, growing at a substantial rate annually, he said.
"There have been some good advantages of the downturn in our segment," he added, pointing out that economic slowdown, which has pulled down rents and costs of products has benefitted the retail sector. " Indian market in the long term is very promising. We need to take it by step by step," he said while declining to provide details about expansion plans or revenue targets for the year.

The Indian car accessory market

The Indian car accessory market is estimated at Rs 1,200 crore.

It is growing at 20-25 per cent year-on-year.

The launch of new passenger car models, India emerging as a major hub for small car manufacturing and the rising per capita income are some of the key reasons for the growth of this market.

The unorganised sector accounts for nearly 60 per cent of the total car accessory market.

Entertainment (purchase of head units, speakers, amplifiers, sub-woofers and so on) is the biggest revenue earner for players in the segment.Consumers generally spend close to 3-4 per cent of the car value on car accessories.

Retail opportunity in India

Retail opportunity is slated to rise by about $160 billion (Rs 758,160 crore) in India in five years.

Modern retail IS likely to grow from 4.5 per cent of total retail in 2008 to 14 per cent by 2013.

In urban India, modern retail is likely to grow from the current 9.6 per cent of total retail to 26 per cent in the next five years.

Within retail spending, 20 distinct categories account for 80 per cent of discretionary spending. These are: Household help, eating out, telecom services, gifts, cinema, cable, DVDs, travel for leisure, grooming and personal care, and so on.

Discretionary expenditure is expected to grow to 32 per cent in 2013.

Healthcare expenditure

The US spends about $2 trillion (Rs 9,423,500 crore) annually on private healthcare.
India spends close to $34 billion (Rs 160,000 crore) annually on healthcare.
The per capita healthcare expenditure in India is $20 (Rs 944) as compared to $2,548 (Rs 120,300) in the US.
India has just 0.7 beds per 1,000 population while the US averages 3.2 beds per 1,000.
Indian healthcare expenditure needs to increase to cater to the 190 million senior citizens by 2028.

Indian market for laptops

Laptop sales doubled in India in 2008 over the previous year.
HP has the largest market share of 21 per cent in the Indian laptop market, followed by HCL and Lenovo. Besides the corporate sector, laptops have been in demand in the education sector, with schools and colleges encouraging their day-to-day use. Laptops sales have increased the most in the 18-36 years age group segment which includes students and home users. Size, weight, battery life and configuration are the most important factors consumers look at when they buy a laptop.

Laptop sales have accounted for a decline in the sales of desktop computers and are expected to take over 40 per cent of the overall PC sales in India by 2010.

Terry Towel - a high-up segment of Indian Home Textile

Terry or Turkish Towels were originally woven in handloom and originated in Constantinople of Turkey. Now, it is produced either by weaving or by knitting, wherein woven terry towels are much more popular. Methods of chemical processing have also a significant role in determining the quality, besides the role of different fibres and yarns mainly for manufacturing bathrobes with soft and cooling effect.

Terry fabrics, basically belong to the group of pile fabrics, wherein additional loose (with lesser tension) yarn is introduced to form loops called as piles to give a distinct appearance and effect. In the present age, pile formation is microprocessor controlled with high level of accuracy and distinct features. Some of the prominent terry towel weaving machinery suppliers in the Indian Industry are Vamatex, Saurer, Dornier, Nuore Pignone and others. After the inclusion of “Soft Flow Machine” in chemical processing decentralized sectors have also improved quality of terry towel fabrics significantly, targeting International market.

Till last decade, Indian terry towel industry was dominated by decentralized Handloom and Powerloom sectors of Panipat, Karur, Erode, Mumbai, Sholapur, Ahmedabad and Delhi, constituting the share of over 80% of the total production of Towel Industry. But, for the last 10 years, many of the organized sectors have entered in this segment.

The estimated annual production terry towels is 100,000 tons and will likely to go up to 115,000 tons with ongoing expansion and new investment by 2012 in the country. The leading players like Welspun and Abhishek Industry together account nearly 70% of the country’s production from organized sector. Other notable players in the field are Bombay Dyeing, Shri Renuga Textiles Ltd., Modern Terry Towels, Regency, Sharadha Terry Products, Santogen, Transpak Industries, Vanasthali, etc., with an average production capacity of 10-20 tons per day. Many new players of textiles like Alok Industries are also in the process of entering in to the field.

Organized Sectors are mainly moving from mid low end to mid high end market whereas decentralized Sholapur, Panipat are concentrating more on low end and domestic market. Some of the high quality powerloom fabrics from decentralized sectors are being slowly accepted in leading markets of USA and EU. In the recent past, many of them installed shuttleless rapier looms with modern processing facilities for high end solid, dobby and jacquard velour beach towel.

USA is the World’s single largest buyer for Made-ups and Terry Towels. India, China and Pakistan together supply 65% towels, 81% of sheets and 79% of comforters imported by USA. While India has a dominant position in America’s terry towel import with a share of around 26%, India’s home textile contributes around 22% i.e. US $ 4.1 billion to India’s textile export of US $ 19 billion. However, the share of terry towel is just 5.8% of total home textile export i.e. US $ 255 million in 2005-06 and US $ 239 million in 2006-07, and there is a room to grow. Till recent time, marketing effort was concentrated in USA, but many are looking for other markets of the EU and other parts of the World.

Small players are concentrating for value addition by providing decorative aspects like design, embroidery, etc. whereas bigger players are bringing various structural innovation, with better absorbency, eco-friendly inputs, fragrance, etc. Most of them are in the combined business of bed and bath terry towel products.

India still has cost advantage on availability of raw material and cheap labor for manufacturing terry towel. Looking to the growing economy and vast middle class population, domestic market is also expected to grow significantly. Many of the Indian companies are also expected to enter in the World Market predominantly through acquisition and branding with this segment in the years to come. Even some of the smaller players are moving towards export market prominently. Towels are subject to changing fashion and demand new designs with different fabric finish, loop pile and flat structures. Major functional proportion such as moisture absorbency, water retention, drying ability, resistance to abrasion, softness and feel are predominantly going to influence the consumer all the time. This should be an ongoing exercise by using different quality of yarn, fiber, proportion of water-soluble fiber component, piles’ length, fabric design and structure.

Indian Terry Towel Industry has already made a strong presence in global market and a major suppliers of Wal-Mart, Target, JC Penney, Bath & Beyond, Macy’s, Nantica and is entering World Textile with its own brand of terry-towel /Home textile in the years to come.

Indian Lingerie Industry

India holds immense growth potential for the lingerie industry, which is evident from the entry of large international brands in the Indian market in the last few years. A key factor characterizing the blooming Indian lingerie market is the increasing size of the organized market and the declining share of the unorganized market resulting in growing independent brands taking charge of the market. In addition, growing income levels of Indians and their changing lifestyles has rechristened lingerie from just an undergarment to a fashion clothing item, at least in the urban centers.
Times have changed for the better for the Indian women like never before in terms of fashion style and statement coupled with growing wealth that is helping the growth of the organized lingerie industry. From being a market worth Rs. 780 crore (US$175.9 million) in 2003, the organized lingerie market has almost doubled to Rs. 1645 crore (US$370.3 million) bustling business in the last five years.

Trade analysts and the industry insiders believe that this is because the whole scale of the Indian market has improved beyond recognition during the last five years following the advent of multinational brands in the market place and the growth of organized retail. This, perhaps, is the reason why the premium and super-premium segment of the lingerie industry, with brassieres priced above Rs. 200 (US$5) and mostly characterized by the presence of international brands, are witnessing higher growth compared to mid-market and low/economy segments.

In view of the current situation, the premium and super-premium segments of the industry are advancing following a consumer shift from economy and mid-market segments to the premium segment, while the low and economy segment is gaining from the industry being more organized.

Characterizing the premium segment are either international brands or joint venture of Indian manufacturers with international companies. Lovable, Enamor and Triumph have successfully established themselves as premium lingerie brands and brands that are in expansion mode include Etam, Benetton, La Perla and About U.

The mid-market segment is characterized by the presence of national players like Maxwell Industries (with Daisy Dee brand), BodyCare, Groversons, Red Rose, Juliet, Jockey, and Libertina.

Factors like growth in income level, preference for recognizable brands and rapid growth of organized retail is anticipated to increase the current share of the organized lingerie market of 28% in the next three years.

WATCH MARKET REVIEW

India is one of the most promising markets for the watch trade across the globe with a penetration level of only 25 watches per 1000 people as compared to the global average of 250 watches per 1000 people. As per the recent national Readership Survey Platinum Study, 60% of the population does not wear watches, leaving a vast opportunity for the industry, which remains yet to be tapped. The size of the watch industry was still languishing at around 4crore watches in the year 2008 from 2.3crore in the year 2000. The industry is expecting a faster and steady growth in the years to follow, with the proactive support of the union government (rationalization of duty structures).

India has more than 10,000 horological industry retailers. More than 5,00,000 people are directly or indirectly employed in the industry. With more players and investment coming into the country, the potential for additional employment, especially in retail areas, is expected to increase significantly.

The total investment in the “organized” watch sector is US$ 250 million and industry leaders have already announced their plans to spruce up their manufacturing capabilities. The industry has the capabilities to cater to a gigantic consumer base of 1.2 billion. Out of a total demand of more than 40 million units, the organized, sector supplies only 16 million units (approx US$ 300 million).

** HOROLOGY is the art or science of measuring time.
HOROLOGICAL INDUSTRY represent manufacturers & retailers of clocks, watches, clockwork, sundials, clepsydras, timers, time recorders and marine chronometers are all instruments used to measure time.


By - Abhishek Nayyar
For Decoy

India: Shopping with the family

Indians devote roughly the same share of their income to apparel as do Chinese and Brazilians. But the country’s lower per capita income levels mean overall spending on apparel is significantly lower, and the habits of Indian shoppers present intriguing challenges for multinationals eyeing the market. For starters, nearly 40 percent of the mass-market Indian shoppers surveyed said that their most important shopping occasions revolved around special events, such as weddings and annual religious festivals—a figure dramatically higher than the one for shoppers in the other emerging markets we studied. Furthermore, to a greater extent than elsewhere, shopping is a family activity in India: nearly 70 percent of its shoppers always go to stores with family, and 74 percent—more than twice the average of Brazil, China, and Russia—view shopping as the best way to spend time with family. The preference for family-oriented shopping is consistent across age groups, income segments, regions, and city sizes.


As in many markets, in India women are the primary decision makers in apparel purchases for the entire family. But India’s men also have an important role: indeed, half of our survey respondents said that their husbands had a major influence on which stores they frequented—a proportion far higher than the one for Brazil (3 percent), China (8 percent), and Russia (18 percent). What’s more, India is unusual in that the market for men’s apparel is larger than the women’s market, where traditional Indian apparel still dominates. Mass-market apparel retailers must therefore find formats and merchandising approaches that will attract shoppers seeking apparel not only for special occasions but also appealing to the entire family.

The cosmetics market in India

THE COSMETICS market in India is valued at Rs 712 crore and is expected to reach Rs 1,514 crore by 2012.

THE MARKET CONSISTS of eye and facial makeup products, talcum powders, lipsticks and nail enamels.

THE FACIAL MAKEUP market in India is valued at Rs 97 crore and is expected to reach Rs 200 crore by 2012.

THE LIPSTICK market in the country is valued at Rs 296 crore.

THE TALCUM POWDER market is valued at Rs 236 crore and is expected to reach Rs 495 crore by 2012.

The Indian textile industry

The Indian textile and apparel market is worth $52.5 billion (Rs 2,60,505 crore).

Out of this, the domestic market is $32 billion (Rs 1,58,720 crore) and exports $20.5 billion (Rs 1,01,679 crore).

The market is expected to grow from $52.5 billion (Rs 2,60,505 crore) in 2007 to $83 billion (Rs 4,11,679 crore) in 2012.

The manpower requirement would be about 6.5 million people in the next five years, with an estimated investment of Rs 1,25,500 crore.

Latest Retail Survey report

The total retail market is expected to touch $590 billion by 2011.

The personal care category has a 5 per cent wallet share in the Indian retail market.

Footwear is expected to become a $1 billion market in India by 2011.

Consumer durables and IT products should touch $35 billion by 2011.

The jewelry and watches category is expected to have a 5 per cent wallet share by 2011.

THE SPORTS GOODS MARKET IN INDIA

The sports goods market in India is estimated to be Rs 527 crore. The category consists of health and fitness equipment, sports equipment (cricket bats, badminton racquets, tennis racquets and so on), sports bikes and so on.

The market is growing at 20-25 per cent a year.

Seventy-eight per cent of the Indian sports goods market exists in the top 784 urban centres. A- and B-type cities (the top 119 cities) together contribute 51 per cent of the total sports goods market.

The Indian sports goods industry, particularly for sports equipment and sport bikes, is dominated by local manufacturers as India is an established manufacturing base for sports equipment.

Health and fitness equipment is a fast-growing category, particularly in AAA- and AA-type cities. This category has seen a rapid increase in imports. About 40 per cent of the high-end sports and fitness equipment sold in India, such as tread mills, is imported.

Sales of sports goods, particularly fitness equipment, also happen through tele-shopping networks, mainly due to the absence of organised retailers in the category.

Most consumers (62 per cent) prefer to buy sports goods from specialised sports goods retailers located in the nearest market.