INDIA RETAIL FORUM 2009 - 2

First day post lunch session was kicked off with a Food & Grocery session chaired by Sadashiv Nayak of Big Bazaar leading the panel of K Radhkrishnan of Reliance, Rajiv Krishnan of Bharati Retail, Ashutosh from Hypercity, Satendra Agarwal from ABRL, BVK Raju of Q Mart and Ambeek from Vishal Retail. To begin with there seems to be some disagreement between all of them on attitude & role of FMCG companies towards modern retailers but Sadashiv handled it very well and ultimately Satendra had to agree that modern retail is the only platform which can give broader exposure to the manufacturers, especially for the new products. It was very clear that modern retailers are not happy with the inflexible attitude of manufacturers since modern retail contributes only 10-15 of their revenue. This is leading to retailers exploring private label on priority and reducing their dependence on FMCG majors as much as possible.
All the members also agreed that the time has come to focus on consumer experience as the key value offering in their stores, especially Rajeev Krishnan was very vocal about it and reiterated his group commitment on this strategy. With multiple retail brands now competing with each other in the neighborhood it can become the key differentiator for the consumers who are looking for experience and real convenience. Raju of Q-Mart claimed that they enjoy patronage of a particular class of consumers and focus on ensuring availability of all consumer needs on the shelves. To counter the problem with FMCG companies Raju claimed that his company largely depends on imported products to offer unique experience and there are cost advantages as well.