Taking into consideration the upheavals of recent times, retail majors are focusing on fresh investment budgets to expand large format value retailing concept stores. Primarily because the Return on Investment (RoI) in the large format value stores is higher than in small format stores, says J Suresh, CEO of Brands & Retail, Arvind Brands — a division of Arvind Ltd. According to him, the value retailing concept has started gaining momentum in India only lately, which is why Megamart, the value retail chain from Arvind Brands, is planning to open a total of 20 large and small format stores in 2009-2010.
Suresh, as one of the executive leaders of Arvind Ltd.,manages the portfolio of both Brands and Retail business of the company. Suresh brings with him a vast experience of being the CEO of the renowned MTR Foods. An Engineering Graduate from Madras University and a Management graduate from Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, he also led the sales and distribution team of the beverage business at Hindustan Unilever Limited. Indiaretailing got a feel of his vision and leadership in a brief interview.
IndiaRetailing (IR): What is the driving philosophy that is leading the internal systems of your retail operation?
J Suresh (JS): The driving philosophy of the Arvind Group is ‘Enriching Lifestyles’ by providing the latest and the best in fashion to its consumers. This position is what led the company to launch the first brand of denim in India, Flying Machine, and then the brand Ruf-n-Tuf to make rural India fashionable. Arvind Ltd. is also credited with bringing in a number of international fashion brands to India. The company always strives to provide the best of quality and offers great value to the consumers, which in turn help them to enrich their lifestyles in terms of their grooming.
IR: While taking your retail operation forward in the Indian context, what is the biggest learning from the current slowdown?
JS: The biggest learning is that if you focus on the consumers and deliver greater value, they will continue to support you in spite of the overall economic downturn. This is exactly what we have done during the times of crisis wherein we have focused on improving the overall quality of our offerings and at the same time not taken up the price indexes of our products.
IR: Your personal vision when it comes to leading your retail team.
JS: My vision is aligned to the group vision of ‘Enriching Lifestyles’ so that everything we do is in line with providing the best value to the consumers in terms of fashionable lifestyles at an affordable price point.
IR: Given the two schools of thought that are currently dominating the Indian retail industry — ‘aggressive expansion’ versus ‘slow but steady expansion’ – which has attracted you as a smarter retail strategy?
JS: We have followed a path of expansion that has been defined and led by the consumer proposition for each of our retail arms. Therefore, at times it can be an aggressive expansion based on consumer demand and sometimes it may be a steady expansion to meet with the appropriate timings in the market.
IR: Your comment on the term ‘Powerful Retailer’. And according to you the three most ‘Powerful retailers’ in the world and why.
JS: Powerful retailers are those who deliver the best value to the consumer and at the same time deliver excellent operational results internally as well. Based on this the three powerful retailers for me are Wal-Mart, Tesco and Target.
