It is not only in Retail but everywhere these Politicians create all the problems.

Infact if they don't do it, nobody will care for them.

Imagine, once the organised retail is established in the country, all the farmers would be getting technology support, fertilisers, hybrid seed and everything from them. In return, they will give them the crops at the predetermined prices.

Then they will not look for Govt. for any support price, fertilisers and so on.

I was also told by one of banker friend that based on the commitment received from the retail regarding Predetermined price, they can avail crop loan for nationalised/rural banks. This will avoid them going to moneylenders.

One can imagine how this will improve their conditions. May be Govt. schemes are good, but exploited to the maximum by the middlemen with the support of politicians.

The reality is their conditions are worsening even after 60 years of Independence.

Who knows, may be ORGANISED RETAILING may change the same.

Nothing can stop an idea whose time has come. It also shows how market forces are far above any Govt. or external agency.

Edited by vip1 - 30/Aug/2007 at 12:28pm

I feel the Biggest threat to the Middlemen and Goverment is Empowerment of the farmer . Rise in his income will lead to

Reliance Mart has bet on the value platform and its private labels to drive sales.

The store stocks a high proportion of private labels in select categories such as apparel, grocery, staples, (atta, sugar, tea under the Select and Value labels) footwear and watches.

Apparel, he said, is being positioned as a big differentiator where 50 per cent of the stocks are private labels with only half being made up by brands, again only those perceived as value brands. Footwear has 90 per cent private labels and watches 15 per cent. Prices, he pointed out, are extremely competitive, with shirts and jeans being offered for Rs 199 and t-shirts for Rs 99.

The Mart also stocks wrinkle-free shirts and trousers for Rs 599. Companies such as Celebrity Fashions, among others, which markets the Indian Terrain apparel range, supply to Reliance under its private label called Spirit. Arvind Mills too, for instance, has supplied a denim label to the Mart. “Now all the templates for the expansion will flow from this store,” said Radhakrishnan.

The next hypermarket will come up in Jamnagar, followed by stores in the NCR region, Hyderabad, Tirupathi, Vijaywada, Pune and Ludhiana. These stores will be smaller, in the range of 20,000 sq ft to 40,000 sq ft. “There will be 30 Marts by year-end,” he emphasised. The store saw record sales of over Rs 60 lakh on the first day and Radhakrishnan said that Mart should see an operational breakeven in about three months time. The store is averaging 7,000 bills a day.

Elaborating on all its formats, it says that Reliance plans to have 100 million sq ft of retail space in the next three to five years and targets Rs 12,000 per sq ft per year for hypermarkets with an EBIDTA margin of 8 per cent.