Retail and FMCG Sectors form the direct path to the India Growth Story stated Dr Naushad Forbes, Vice President, CII &Director, Forbes Marshall Private Limited while inaugurating the CII National Retail Summit and CII National FMCG Summit on 24th June 2014 at Mumbai. These sectors offer great opportunity for both process and product innovation. These shall be critical to delivering profitable growth to the sectors.
Mr Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, Partner, Rare Enterprises in his Keynote Address shared his very optimistic view about the long term potential of the consumer sector in India and India’s growth prospects. He felt that organised retail would grow from $40 Billion to $ 200 billion in the next 5 to 7 years . Successful models of retail namely Food & Grocery sectors to Footwear to Lifestyle products have done exceedingly well on the Indian stock markets and given very high returns to the investor.
2014 will be a good year for retailing in India as income levels have increased for much of the Indian population. Availability of a wide range of brands from luxury goods to basic private label products gave consumers more options to choose from and also boosted awareness of particular brands and products.
Domestic brands and local companies remained dominant among the players operating in retailing in India during 2014. In spite of various relaxations made to the rules regarding foreign direct investment in India in, international companies remain cautious about India stated Mr J Suresh, Chairman CII National Committee on Retail and Managing Director and CEO, Arvind Lifestyle Brands Ltd.
Looking ahead the mood remains positive as the Government is working to put economic growth on track. Once there is semblance of growth, funds should also pour into the retail sector. As an industry, the retail sector is seeking more foreign institutional investor (FII) participation in retail, as it will ease the funds crunch especially for unlisted retailers. In addition, there is much anticipation that there will be more clarity on the rollout of GST, which will help in uniform taxation across states and ease the service tax pressure.
Over the past decade, the FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) sector of India has been annually growing at a consistent rate of 11%. This double digit growth each year has been possible by increasing consumer demands. In the past five years the growth had then accelerated to 17%.The increasing demand for the fast moving consumer goods, speaks volumes about the growth prospects of the FMCG sector in India. Indian companies are striving hard to keep up with ever-changing consumer preferences. They are also trying to outdo competition, which is why growth in this sector is simply inevitable mentioned at the CII FMCG Summit 2014.
FMCG is typically the last sector to slow down and over the last three years – as sector after sector slowed down – FMCG was the one bright spot. Over the last year, FMCG has also come under pressure and hence what is needed by the industry is to think about what to do to recreate itself, stated Mr Kurush Grant, Chairman, CII National Committee on FMCG 2014-15 and Executive Director, FMCG Businesses, ITC Ltd. There is a need to understand the consumer better and finally the last mile connectivity – the distribution infrastructure and capabilities are critical to achieving success for FMCG Businesses.
The report titled "Changing your Orbit – The Handbook for Transformation in FMCG & Retail Businesses” by CII and The Boston Consulting Group highlights the need and approach of how an integrated top–down effort to drive successful transformation can be undertaken in the FMCG and retail industries. The report defines several drivers that companies must take into account, as they set themselves up for a journey of reinvention and relevance in an ever changing market place.
Addressing and participating in the sessions at the Retail Summit on Transformational Strategies, Seamless Retailing Case Studies, Leveraging Technology, Power Panel on Creating a Retail Brand will be Andrea Morgan- Vandome, Vice President- Retail Strategy & Solution Marketing, Oracle Retail Global Business Unit; Ashish Dikshit, Chief Executive Officer, Madura Fashion & Lifestyle; Amitabh Mall, Partner and Director, The Boston Consulting Group; C K Venkataraman, Chief Executive Officer – Jewellery, Titan Company Ltd; Jonathan Sharp, Partner and Managing Director, The Boston Consulting Group, Australia; Kabir Lumba, Managing Director and Executive Director , Lifestyle International Pvt Ltd; Ganesh Subramanian, Chief Operating Officer, Myntra.com; Mukesh Mathur, Executive Director & Business Head- Retail, Oracle India Pvt Ltd; Mark Ashman, Chief Executive Officer, Hypercity Retail India Ltd; Madhav Nishtala, Industry Expert – Retail, SAP; Matt Hampton, Oracle Retail; Mini Menon, Executive Editor, Bloomberg TV India; Mohit Khattar, Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer Godrej Natures Basket Ltd; Prof. Piyush Kumar Sinha, Professor in Retailing and Marketing, Chairperson, Centre for Retailing, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad; Sadashiv Nayak, Chief Executive Officer, Future Retail Ltd; Sriman Kota, Executive, Smarter Commerce business, Asia-Pacific region, IBM; Sanjay Purohit, Managing Director, Levi Strauss (India) Pvt Ltd. Vinay Bhatia, Customer Care Associate and Executive Vice President- Marketing, Loyalty and Analytics, Shoppers Stop Ltd.
Addressing and participating in the sessions at the FMCG Summit on Develop the right value proposition for the consumer: New Trends, Successfully communicating the value proposition: Social Media, Being at the right place: The Distribution Landscape, The consumer decision journey will be Chandramouli Venkatesan, Regional Category Head- Chocolate division, Asia Pacific, Mondelez International; Debashish Mukherjee, Partner, AT Kearney India ; Hemant Rupani, Vice President- Sales, Britannia Industries Ltd; Neeraj Garg, Vice President- South West Asia & Juice, Coca- Cola India Pvt Ltd; Nimisha Jain, Partner and Director, The Boston Consulting Group; Neeraj Chandra, Chief Executive Officer- Consumer Care Division, Emami Limited; Piruz Khambatta, Chairman and Managing Director, Rasna Pvt Limited ; Prakash MG, Sales Director, Mead Johnson Nutrition India; Prashant Singh, Managing Director- India Region, Nielsen India Pvt Ltd; Rakshit Hargave, Managing Director, Nivea India Pvt Ltd; Sandeep Verma, Global Brand Director & Category Head – Household Care , Hindustan Unilever Ltd; Sanjiv Puri, Divisional Chief Executive, ITD, ITC Ltd; Sameer Satpathy, Executive Vice President and Business Head, Marico Ltd; Siva Nagarajan, Managing Director, Mother Dairy Fruits & Vegetables Pvt Limited; Tarun Arora, Country General Manager – India, Danone Waters; Vivek Gambhir, Managing Director, Godrej Consumer Products Limited.
Several CEO and Business Heads from the Retail and FMCG Sectors attended this mega event at Mumbai.
Mumbai