The Next Big Thing:Hospitality & Organized Retailing

Every industry has its peak period! We all heard of the IT Boom, The Real Estate Boom and now it’s time for Retail & Hospitality sectors! I need not boast too much about it since everyone heard about the Big Fat Budget that has been set aside to make things real. If you haven’t I would like to have a dig at some facts here.

Let me start with the ‘Big Fish’,the mighty ‘W’: Wal-Mart will be setting malls in India in association with Sunil Mittal’s Bharti Group. Other international big players like Carrefour, Tesco and Auchan have also shown interest in this industry. Indian retail industry is expected to grow at a compounded growth rate of 11% and will be a $450 billion industry by 2010. DLF will be spending Rs. 1600 crore on developing malls over the next four years.

Reliance Retail is planning to splurge Rs 2500 crore for opening different formats  and the Kishore Biyani-owned Future Group, India’s largest retailer group, will be investing Rs 3600 crore in 100 stores in 30 cities, increasing its retail space from 3.5 million square feet to 30 million sq feet by 2010. Future Group also plans to have 100 Big Bazaars up and running even before Wal-mart arrives in India. Nice welcome that will be for the American giant

Now all those money, ever thought about the potential of this sector ?In a sharp contrast to the retail sector in developed economies, retailing in India – though large in terms of size – is highly fragmented and unorganized. With close to 12 million retail outlets the country has one of the highest retail densities worldwide. For this very reason the potential is too huge.

And how this happened all of a sudden would be the next question that might pop up in our mind! Well Indian middle class now is too ‘demanding’-That’s where it all happened. We all wish to have more choices, best quality and importantly more than just ‘buying’, we want the shopping experience to be entertaining!

Given the size and the purchasing power of the Indian consumer, the road ahead can only get smoother and it is only a matter of time before the domestic retail industry is on par with its western counterparts.

Recession or steep market conditions the Retail & Hospitality sectors by far deals with the basic necessities and hence seldom get affected by such factors. But anyway the good news is that: “Picture abi shuru hi ho raha hai” or simply its all just beginning !

Originally posted 2009-12-07 20:50:44. Republished by Blog Post Promoter