22 January,2011 06:46 AM IST | | Bobby Anthony
Conclude panelists, as Retail Leaders Summit 2011 came to an end yesterday
THE Retail Leaders Summit 2011 ended yesterday, with Kumar Rajagopalan, CEO of Retailers Association of India announcing January 19 and 20, 2012 as dates for the next summit.
The last day of the summit had retail industry veterans discussing supply chains and expected evolvement of Indian luxury brands, and also the future of food and furniture retail.
Panelists at Retail Leaders Summit 2011. Dheeraj Gupta, MD of Jumbo King is projected on screen
The meet kicked off with Saloni Nangia, senior VP Retail and Consumer Products of Technopak Advisors Pvt Ltd, unveiling the key findings of a research report on retail trends to be released during the second quarter of this year.
A panel discussion on luxury retailing followed with participants like Joseph Wan, chief executive of Harvey Nichols; Govind Shrikhande, MD of Shoppers Stop Ltd; Kabir Lumba, MD of Lifestyle International Pvt Ltd; Pradeep Hirani, MD of Kimaya Fashion, Rajiv Kaul, president of Leela Kempinski; Bijou Kurien, president and chief executive of Reliance Lifestyle Holding; Vinay Nadkarni, MD and CEO of Globus Stores.
"Many people ask which is the most expensive brand in order to buy it. I call these ego massage brands," said Hirani, while Wan stressed that retailing of foreign brands in India would not realise its potential unless the government brought down import duties, which he said are still very high.
The panelists largely concluded that India would remain a price conscious market for several more years.
The summit also had a lively discussion on the food and entertainment business where they even discussed opportunities to repackage Indian food innovatively to suit the times.
The discussion on collaboration between manufacturer, vendor and retailer also saw eager participation by Damodar Mall, director, food strategy of the Future Group; Anshuman Singh, head of Future Supply Chain; as well as Komal Anand, sales director, organized trade of PepsiCo India.
The panelists also discussed how high real estate prices constrain supply chains. "Even Indian hypermarkets have no backend storage facilities, because of high rents and real estate prices," said Singh.
Almost everybody concluded that high real estate prices constrained the retail industry in various ways.
