Bharti retail entered NCR market Friday, May 29 2009

Bharti Retail, an arm of Bharti Enterprises, on Thursday said it has entered the National Capital Region with the launch of its first neighbourhood store ‘Easyday’ in New Delhi.

“The launch marks the foray of Bharti Retail in the National Capital Region after successfully establishing Easyday brand in Punjab and Haryana,” Bharti Retail said in a statement.

The company said the Easyday store in the capital will be a neighbourhood format store offering more than 3,000 products at competitive prices.

“After a successful beginning in Punjab and Haryana, we are excited about the entry in the National Capital Region, which is strategically important for us,” Bharti Retail President and Chief Operating Officer Vinod Sawhny said in a statement.

Easyday store was launched in April last year and offers products like personal care, stationery, household cleaning, food and grocery.Easyday is having good SCM.

Bharti Retail is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bharti Enterprises. The company has launched Easyday neighbourhood stores in Punjab and Haryana and a compact hypermarket called ‘Easyday Market’ in Ludhiana.

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Walmart At India Thursday, May 28 2009

Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, which was to scheduled to unveil its first store in India on Tuesday, in joint venture with the country’s largest wireless telecom operator Bharti Enterprises, is advancing its time line for expanding its retail network in India.

Originally, the joint venture had announced the plans to set up 15 stores of 50,000 to 100,000 sq ft size and employing more than 5,000 persons over a period of seven years. The company is now confident of achieving the goal in the next three years.

“In 2007, we talked about opening up of 10-15 stores in the next seven years. I think we can open 10-15 (stores) over the next three years,” said Raj Jain, President, Wal-Mart India, in an interview to a TV channel.

“…whatever we plan, we can probably accelerate that based on the learning we had over the last eighteen months,” added Jain.

Apart from softening of realty prices in the past few months, which is vital to the the financial health any retailing company, Jain feels that Walmart is now more confident about doing business in India.

The scheduled opening of the 50:50 joint venture’s maiden ’Cash & Carry’ store at Amritsar, Punjab, had to be deferred on account of outbreak of violence in the city and Punjab state following a firearm attack on a Sikh Guru in a Gurudwara in the Austrian capital city of Vienna last Sunday. The C&C chain promoted under the brand name of ’Best Price Modern Wholesale’ will now be opened after improvement of the law and order situation in the city and surrounding areas.

Walmart, the US-based, $405 billion multi-brand big box retailer, which began its operations in 1962 from Bentonville, Arkansas, United States, currently operates in 15 countries across the world. Worldwide, the retailer emloyes over 2.1 million persons and operates more than 7,800 retail units under 55 different banners. The discount retailer serves around 30 million customers and members every day.

It will give a boost to Indian retail sector.Corporate will come up with new ideas of SCM in retail after this to compete with Walmart.

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Pantaloon Retail to restructure Wednesday, May 27 2009

Pantaloon Retail received shareholders’ approval for restructuring the company into three separate entities catering to FMCG, retail and fashion, and renamed the group as Future Markets & Consumer Group.

The shareholders have approved sale of the firm’s fashion division, including the entire investment in Home Solutions (Retail) India, to its wholly-owned subsidiary, Future Value Retail and sale of its retail division to subsidiary Future Speciality Retail, the company said in notice to the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Shareholders have also approved the company’s decision to change its name to Future Markets & Consumer Group Ltd or such other name as may be approved by the Registrar of Companies, Maharashtra, the company added.

Post transfer, Future Value Retail would be renamed as Future Merchandising and Future Speciality Retail would be rechristened as Future Consumer Enterprises. They may also see shift in supply chain management of future group.

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GPS in Supply Chain Tuesday, May 26 2009

GPS in Supply Chain Currently

We hear a lot about RF for tracking, but not nearly as much about GPS. GPS seems to be specialized in vehicle and container tracking. While that is helpful, it is not as helpful as going to the pallet level or below for tracking. Secondly, in terms of tracking, using RF is fine for inside the warehouse, however, one items leave the warehouse it is not as helpful.

Current Design

The current design of package tracking is through the use of the bar code and the bar code reader. For the development of comprehensive This requires that the company that scans the package, provide a feed to a different company. As those of you know who read our blog on fourth party logistics providers, we propose that intermediaries that do nothing but build platforms that perform supply chain monitoring is the future.

The nice thing about GPS, is that multiple people can track it, without having to necessarily integrate to one another. This is because the GPS transmitter can be picked up by multiple parties that don’t necessarily even have any integration to one another. In this way, GPS is a one to many technology that could have significant scale economies if used properly.

Consumer GPS Transmitters

The cost of transmitters is decreasing. However, they are not as common as one would think. The most successful and numerous consumer GPS transmitter currently is for keeping track of dogs and runs roughly $150 Garmin makes the model below.

Commericial GPS Transmitters

The commercial GPS transmitter by WorldTracker is roughly $250 (figure $170, or less if purchased in bulk, which they would be), and transmits the unit’s location every 15 seconds. This is far too more frequent than required for logistics, and could be made more energy efficient by changing the transmission frequency to once per hour. This unit is smaller than a deck of cards and could easily be affixed to a pallet. The lifespan of this unit or competing units is unknown to us.

Conclusion

Supply chain firms are not doing enough to take advantage of what GPS has to offer and is overly focused on bar coding and RF for package tracking. In the future 4PL environment, a device that transmits a signal, that multiple companies can read will be highly advantageous.Retail India can use GPS for supply chain management.

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Expert’s VIew Monday, May 25 2009

According to Nihar Ghosh, Sr. Vice President-HR, RPG retail sector

Sourcing and supply chain management (SCM) is critical for every organisation, but more so for retail. A store may have the right number of footfalls, but it would be useless if it does not have the right products. It is crucial to have the merchandise on the shelf at the right time and in the right quantity. Merchandise planning and SCM have to work efficiently and in tandem to ensure the smooth running of retail establishment.

SCM is the single most important pillar in retail and naturally we do not compromise on competency when it comes to recruitment. We look for people who are good with number crunching, have high IT skills and can co-ordinate effectively. For managerial posts, we need people with an MBA. Several schools have started offering full time specialist MBA programmes on SCM.

An MBA begins as a management trainee and can earn an impressive Rs 8 lakh-Rs 10 lakh per annum. A graduate usually begins as a warehouse or logistics assistant and can get a starting salary of Rs 2 lakh-Rs 3 lakh per annum.

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RFID is solution of SCM problems !!! Saturday, May 23 2009

RFID, or radio frequency identification, has gained ascendancy in the corporate world more by fiat than through efforts to persuade suppliers that the technology could deliver internal returns — at least, in the beginning. With the requirement to deploy it or lose contracts handed down by such entities as Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) More about Wal-Mart and the Department of Defense, partners scrambled to comply.

To be sure, there was always the tantalizing prospect that tracking pallets and containers would lead to a massive return on investment. However, it wasn’t until very recently that the ROI promise appeared likely to materialize.

Two separate reports suggest that wider adoption of RFID in the supply chain may be on hand.
From $1.2B to $3.5B

Global revenues for RFID products are likely to grow by almost a third to reach US$1.2 billion this year, predicts a report released by Gartner (NYSE: IT) More about Gartner. Within the next four years, worldwide revenues could top $3.5 billion. Much of this growth will shift away from projects that are compliance-oriented to those that are revenue-generating and innovative, according to Gartner Research Director Chad Eschinger.

As companies move into this exploration phase, Gartner says, demand is expected to grow for RFID-based technology that supports in-store inventory management projects, as well as other functions.

RFID is the solution to the SCM.

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FDI in Retail:A dream or reality?? Friday, May 22 2009

The organised retail sector is hoping that the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) coming back to power will give a fresh lease of life to foreign direct investment (FDI) in retail. The Congress election manifesto is, however, silent on the issue. There is no political consensus on the issue.

Currently, India allows 51 per cent FDI for single brand retail, whereas it is not permitted at all in the case of Wal-Mart or Tesco that hawk a wide range of both branded and privately-labelled goods. Multi-national companies retailers are permitted only if they operate in the cash-and-carry segment catering to institutional and business consumers rather than households.

“We believe that the new government must look at retail to be opened up. When I talk of retail being opened up, I am talking about FDI to be brought in,” said Mr Rajan Bharti Mittal, Vice-Chairman, Bharti Enterprises.

Bharti currently runs its own retail chain under the “EasyDay” label. It also has a tie-up with Wal-Mart, which is confined to the wholesale cash-and-carry business. “Retail needs to grow and I have always maintained that retail is not just about the content but retail is about warehousing, cold chain, logistics, farming sector,” he said.

The opening of retail has been facing stiff resistance from various political outfits which claimed that it may adversely impact the 1.3 crore small retailers.

“Only a small proportion of general trade, which is in close proximity to modern trade, would be partially affected by FDI in retail. It is not a zero-sum game. Our belief is that the share of organised retail will go down but the volumes certainly will not be impacted by opening up of the retail sector,” Mr Rajeev Kumar, Director and Chief Executive ICRIER said.

The retail industry has been reeling under the impact of economic slowdown with a clutch of retailers facing cash crunch and even putting expansion on hold. Mr Arvind Singhal, Chairman Technopak said, “With the pressure for allies almost non-existent, the incoming Government can focus strongly to develop policies favouring organised retail. In general, the consumers sentiments will be positive and a stable Government will also bring in more investors”.

The greatest concern for the retail sector is getting the suppliers in sync with the fast pace the retailers have to maintain. They must keep customers or stores properly stocked and deliver the perfect order every time. So there is a challenges faced by retailers in having an efficient SCM.

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SCM:Supply Chain Management Thursday, May 21 2009

Supply chain management process which has planning, implementing, and controlling the operations of the supply chain as efficiently as possible. Supply Chain Management which spans all the movement and storage of raw materials, work-in-process inventory, and semi-finished/finished goods from point-of-origin to point-of-consumption. But in the global meltdown like this we are faced with the challenge of reducing inventory and associated costs across the supply chain. So the above issue requires excellent planning and usage of tools that can help simulate the scenarios and decide optimum inventory levels, demand forecasting, and perturbations in the manufacturing line. All these need to be achieved with a set of constraints in which the manufacturing plant operates. So what are some of the challenges and opportunities in the area of supply chain management that to in retail.
In today’s world, it is not about your organization versus your competitor’s organization. It is your supply chain versus your competitor’s supply chain. Therefore, it’s essential to eliminate the boundaries between organizations and make sure you and your supply chain partners are really working as one to increase customer satisfaction and market segment. Share information and assure that all links have a common, wholelistic view of the entire supply chain.

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Hello world! Thursday, May 21 2009

Welcome to WordPress.com. This is your first post. Edit or delete it and start blogging!

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