The Hindu Business Line : `Organised retail in eastern region to cross Rs 10,000 cr in 5 years'

(From left) Mr Kishore Biyani, Managing Director, Pantaloon Retail (India) Ltd, Mr Sanjiv Goenka, Vice-Chairman, RPG Enterprises, and Mr Paco Underhill, Managing Director, Envirosell Inc, at the Retail 2005 seminar organised by the CII in Kolkata on Thursday. — A. Roy Chowdhury

Kolkata , July 14

ORGANISED retail in the eastern parts of the country is projected to cross Rs 10,000 crore by 2010, according to a CII and Images study on "East India Retail: 2010 & Beyond."

The study was jointly released here on Thursday by Mr Asok Bhattacharya, West Bengal's Minister for Municipal Affairs and Urban Development, and Mr Paco Underhill, retail anthropologist and Founder & CEO of Envirosell.

According to the study, Rs 4,500 crore will be invested in the region's retail sector over the next five years. This will help in the setting up of over 100 shopping and leisure centres offering 20 million sq. ft. of space for 10 hypermarkets, 75 department stores, 150 supermarkets and over 1,000 other new outlets.

In 2004-05, retailing in the region made up for Rs 2.2 lakh crore of total private consumption spending. In the last fiscal, the retail spend in Kolkata and its suburbs alone was around Rs 19,000 crore.

The study states that, over the last three to four years, organised retailing has picked up in the region with malls becoming operational not only in Kolkata but also in smaller cities such as Guwahati and Bhubaneswar.

Retail sales in the region during 2003-04 stood at Rs 1.99 lakh crore with a share of about 67 per cent of the region's total private consumption expenditure (PCE) that was about Rs 2.98 lakh crore. West Bengal accounted for about 38 per cent of the total PCE in the region followed by Bihar at 25 per cent and Orissa 13 per cent. Assam, Jharkhand and the North-Eastern States accounted for the remaining 24 per cent.

The study predicts that retail development will expand in the next five years to cover cities such as Jamshedpur, Cuttack, Puri, Asansol, Shillong, Jorhat and Dimapur The food and grocery sector presented the most significant potential, accounting for 51 per cent of the total PCE in the region compared with 43 per cent for the country as a whole. The next level of opportunities, in terms of product retail expansion, is seen in categories such as clothing and accessories, consumer durables, electronics and home improvement and healthcare products. Rural retailing, too, offered great potential in the long run.

The day-long seminar on the future of retailing was addressed by, among others, Mr Underhill, Mr Sanjiv Goenka, Past President of CII and Vice-Chairman of RPG Enterprises, and Mr Kishore Biyani, Chairman of CII's National Committee on Retailing and Chief of Pantaloon Retailing (India).

Mr Goenka and Mr Biyani expressed their opposition to foreign direct investment (FDI) in the retail sector. Mr Goenka said FDI should not be allowed in the retail space at least for the next three years. Mr Biyani wondered what extra facilities a foreign retailer would offer to consumers here that Indian retailers could not.

Mr Underhill dwelt at length on the future of retailing, understanding customer needs, changing customers' patterns, customer experience and consumer insights, among other issues.

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