T E Narasimhan/Business Standard reports from Chennai on how the Future group plans to shore up its small store network in the South.
Kolkata, which has remained a priority centre for Future Group is also all set to get three more Pantaloon stores by the festive season in 2011. The group has finalised locations for Madhyamgram, Lake Mall and Jessore Road.
The Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) has awarded Rs 23.7 crore in damages, besides arbitration and litigation costs, to Amazon in its long-running dispute with the Kishore Biyani-led Future Group. The three-member bench of the tribunal held that Future Group had breached the terms of its contract with Amazon by entering into a transaction with Reliance.
Through this transaction, Amazon has managed to acquire around a 3.6 per cent stake in the Future group.
As a sign of things to come, Future Media, the media arm of the group, recently launched a women's magazine, My World, priced at Rs 25, given away as gratis to shoppers at Future Group stores (Pantaloon, Big Bazaar, etc) spending over Rs 1,500. The company plans to launch a magazine each quarter.
He wants to transform his retail-led enterprise into a consumer goods giant, and reach Rs 1 lakh crore in turnover by 2021, but is that feasible?
Future Retail Ltd has said that SEBI's one-year ban on its chairman Kishore Biyani and some other promoters from the securities market will have "no impact" on the Rs 24,713 crore-deal with Reliance. Further, Kishore Biyani, some other promoters and Future Corporate Resources Pvt Ltd (FCRPL) plan to appeal against the order passed by Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on Wednesday. "The order will have no impact on the ongoing Scheme of Arrangement of the company. We understand that the relevant parties propose to challenge this order in exercise of their statutory right to appeal," Future Retail Ltd (FRL) said in a late-night regulatory filing on Wednesday.
With Big Bazaar Direct, the company franchisees will visit customers to take orders and the products would be delivered in three to seven days.
Customers want formats which have wide assortment, international products, and so on. Basically, it is an assortment play.
'Big Bazaar Profit Club' hopes to build loyalty amongst customers and get better prices from suppliers. Can it succeed?
Future Media, the media company of Kishore Biyani's Future group, announced the acquisition of on-screen media rights of all Inox Leisure multiplexes in the country for the next two and half years.
Future group founder Kishore Biyani on Wednesday said the homegrown retail major lost nearly Rs 7,000 crore revenue in first three-four months of the Covid-19 pandemic due to closing of stores, which led him to sell his business to Reliance Industries.
Kishore Biyani's Future Group has seen a turnaround in home retailing after months of decline, on the back of improved consumer sentiments and focused merchandising plans, a key group executive said.
Kishore Biyani, the founder of Future Group, plans to more than double retail space to 30 million sq ft by 2013 and push the private labels business.
Kishore Biyani, the retail baron, seems ready to smoke the peace pipe with suppliers with whom he has been at loggerheads for the past few months. The move comes at a time when some of his recently launched private-label product categories are outselling those of multinational rivals such as Nestle.The founder of Future Group of retail chains including Food Bazaar and Pantaloon recently launched a series of in-house value-for-money consumer products.
Kishore Biyani's Future Group is getting its act together on supplying its private labels outside the group's 1,000-odd outlets, even as Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Retail has already marched ahead by starting to sell some of its private brands to kiranawalas (independent stores).
Kishore Biyani-promoted Future Group is expanding its private labels in various categories with plans to launch more products in new segments such as toothpaste as part of plans to become a Rs 25,000 crore (Rs 250 billion) conglomerate by 2013-14.
Big Bazaar stores have sold 900 Nano cars since February, when Tata Motors made the arrangement.
Enthused by its success in retail, the Kishore Biyani-led $2 billion Future Group will soon foray into the logistics business, investing more than Rs 400 crore (Rs 4 billion) by 2010.
Kishore Biyani met Jeff Bezos, the founder and CEO of Amazon, in Delhi last week and "discussed many things like the macro environment and the prime minister"
In the decade since Biyani revolutionised retailing in India, he has attempted a number of things, eventually exiting a few of them.
Future Retail Ltd (FRL) on Tuesday said it will explore all legal remedies to pursue its Rs 24,713-crore deal with RIL following a Delhi high court order directing status quo to be maintained till the court pronounces its order. Earlier in the day, a Delhi high court bench of Justice J R Midha directed FRL to maintain status quo in relation to its deal with Reliance Retail that has been objected to by US-based e-commerce giant, Amazon. Amazon welcomed the latest court directive.
Kishore Biyani's Future Group will hive off its electronics business into a separate company, as continued promotions and increased competition are taking a toll on its margins.
Experts say Future group will look for an out-of-court settlement with help from Reliance in the Amazon matter.
Banking sources said the debt recast is actually 'Plan B' to help the nation's largest retailer stay afloat.
Raghu Pillai, former director and CEO (operations, strategy and business development) of Reliance Retail, today took over as the chief executive of Kishore Biyani's Future Value Retail. An industry veteran, Pillai talks about his new role with Business Standard.
Azim Premji's Rs 175-crore (Rs 1.75-billion) investment in Future Retail will help Kishore Biyani tide through crisis.
Ventures in areas such as insurance, financial services and logistics valued at Rs 4,500-5,000 crore ; company in talks with PE giants KKR and JP Morgan.
Listed companies of the Kishore Biyani-led Future group on Saturday informed exchanges about meetings of their respective shareholders and creditors being convened on April 20 and 21 to get their approval for the Rs 24,713-crore deal with Reliance Retail. Listed entities, including Future Enterprises Ltd, Future Retail Ltd, Future Consumer Ltd and Future Supply Chain, informed exchanges about dates and other procedures for the virtual meetings of shareholders and creditors. The meetings are held virtually through video conferencing and other audio-visual means, the addendum notice added.
The group, which employs nearly 26,000 employees, plans to cut employee costs by one per cent, or Rs 65 crore (Rs 650 million), in the current year by redeploying people in its various businesses and reducing new hirings. "Instead of external hiring, we have redeployed a part of our people resources from our mature businesses to the new ventures," Future Group CEO Kishore Biyani said.
"We are developing the cash and carry model with an overseas partner," Future Group's CEO Kishore Biyani told PTI here, without giving details.
Experts say Biyani will now become a contract manufacturer of fashion and FMCG products, with the Reliance group being one of his customers.
Clearing the air on the issue of succession and the role of professionals in the group, the younger Biyani (Rakesh) said, "I find it very awkward to think so early about succession when my elder brother, Kishore, is still young, not even 50. I wonder why nobody asks who is going to succeed Mukesh Ambani, who owns the biggest business empire in the country."
There is immense pressure on Biyani to go ahead with the RIL offer after FRL defaulted on its interest payments of Rs 100 crore on July 22.
Shareholders of the six listed Future Group companies voted on Wednesday. Bankers said all the large lenders had rejected the proposal.
The group had launched a 5-day promotional blitz called Mahabachat across its retail chains from August 12 till August 17. The promotion and special offers were offered across the Group's retail formats -- Big Bazaar, Pantaloons, Food Bazaar, Central, EZone, Home Town, Brand Factory, Furniture Bazaar, KBs Fairprice, Mobile Bazaar and Aadhar.
Future group firms have started getting large orders from Reliance Industries, its CEO Kishore Biyani said in an email to his employees on Tuesday. The group firms Future Consumer and Future Enterprises have recently received orders from Reliance Industries. This will be a big support for the cash-strapped future group firms before the completion of Rs 24,713 crore buyout of the country's second-largest retailer by Reliance Industries' arm. Ecommerce major Amazon has raised objections over the deal.
The equity infusion will happen at Rs 505 a unit, which is a premium of nearly 14 per cent over February 4's close of Rs 444.60.
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