Four P’s — ‘politics’ plaguing the growth of retail industry, cost of good talented ‘people’, development issues of ‘property’ and supply of ‘products’ — are the major issues in the Indian retail, according to Steve Gilman, chairman, Big Idea, UK.
Elaborating on the issue of politics in Indian retail, Gilman further said: “International retailers have limited options of franchising or wholesaling or operating as a single-brand identity in India and this is not what the international retailers want. Even the domestic retailers are bound to approach differently in different states. For instance, Reliance Fresh, which has been facing difficulties in opening its stores in different states in India.”
Speaking on the occasion of India Retail Forum 2008 being held in Mumbai, he drew comparisons between the retail market of India and China, since both the markets are growing at enormous rate. According to him, the urban population in India is significantly lagging behind China and will take a number of years to catch up.
“The targetable urban population in top 20 cities in India is 50 per cent of China and 30 per cent of top 40 cities, with cities in India are more geographically diverse,” he added.
– Ananya Saha
