Bookings in five-star hotels and inflow of foreign tourists into the country were already running low due to the global economic meltdown. With Wednesday's terror attack, the hotel industry is expected to see a rise in the number of cancellations and also a substantial reduction in tourist numbers since the terrorists have struck at the peak of the tourist season.
The firms record robust 10-15% growth till September. However, despite the enhanced outlays for A&B, companies are looking at adopting cost -cutting measures.
The worries for the industry include defaulting payments, slowdown in industry growth rate and budget cuts. "While we are bracing ourselves for budget cuts in the near future, we can't give our customers longer credit cycles as we operate on wafer-thin operating margins," says Mudhukar Kamath, MD and CEO, Mudra Group, while admitting that they have experienced a few cases where payments are getting stretched.
The price difference between branded tea and loose tea has narrowed to a mere 5 per cent, helping the consumer to opt for branded labels. According to Bloomberg, the wholesale price index for tea in India gained 74 basis points from 128.30 in January to 222.50 at end of October this year. As a consequence, tea manufacturers in the wholesale and loose tea business, besides branded tea players, have increased prices.
The industry experienced new pressures on its operating margins and sales in the wake of increasing input costs and new excise regime. For the domestic spirits manufacturing industry, the cost of raw materials such as molasses doubled since March. Packaging costs rose by 15-20 per cent. The widening of services tax resulted in 50 per cent new services to be taxed at 12.36 per cent. Besides an increase in labour costs, inflation also played havoc with the operating margins.
"The 33 per cent extra scheme by Frito-Lay's on Lay's and Kurkure got good trader and consumer response. In the next four-six weeks, a similar scheme will be offered by ITC," market sources said. ITC has been able to capture 7 per cent of the chips and snacks sector in 2007 within a year of its launch. "It has already made a dent in Frito-Lay India's share," according to a Euromonitor International study on sweet and savoury snacks in India.
Media-buying and advertising agencies are a worried lot. The last quarter was bad for them with overall advertising, across all media, dipping by 10-20 per cent.
The total wine market in the country consists of 1.2 million cases, according to an industry estimate, of which the imported wine segment is a mere 22,000 cases or 20 per cent. Champagne Indage -- one of the biggest domestic players and producers of domestic wine under the Chateau Indage umbrella -- recently launched Indage Vineyards to bring in contemporary and new range of wines from across the globe to India.
Talking about the company's portfolio expansion, APB-India CEO Ashwin Deo said, "Currently, we are looking at consolidating our presence and will look at introducing new products at various price points in the next eight to 10 months."
Competition with online international networks hots up in cyberspace.
Matrimonial sites like Bharat Matrimony and Shaadi.com have been around for a decade as compared to dating and friendship sites, which are just around three years old in India.
Virus attacks are no more just virtual. They now have a voice and are getting more personal.
Japan, which is the second-largest IT market after the US, is still untapped by Indian firms.
The figure is expected to rise to 25-30 per cent, adding around 100 million new cellular subscribers by 2009, according to a recent study by LIRNEasia and AC Nielson.
India needs to develop mass production companies which can cater to requirements of 100,000's units as opposed to the available capacities of a few thousand pieces on an average said David Bradley, director of commodity management,Asia,Jabil Circuit.
But despite the growth, the base of really 'active' online buyers (those who buy online at least once a month) is almost stagnant at 2.2 million, same as 2006.
Indian Internet Service Providers are upbeat about Worldwide Inter-operability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) as a solution for the country's last-mile connectivity problems.
A Frost & Sullivan report to be released later this month states the number of seats in pure IP will grow from 10 percent in 2006 to 34 percent in 2013.
After match-making, matrimonial websites now want to grab a share of the Rs 70,000 crore (Rs 700 billion) wedding management market.
Research and development has become a critical part of the operations of information technology service provider firms in India
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