Guest post by Mr. Owen Price on the Anniversary

Monday, May 11, 2009

I well remember the opening of the first Foodworld in Chennai in 1996 and the team of people so eager to learn about modern retailing and whose names will remain etched in the company’s history. At that time the Indian market was unique in as much that there were no self service supermarket chains and Foodworld was a true retailing pioneer.

I recall walking the one and only store at C.P. Ramaswamy Road with the manager the late Ms. Usha Ravi one day and trying to explain certain aspects of display. I think she thought that I was crazy but we shared some good laughs together. Such was the learning curve!

On this anniversary of the first store I would like to extend my congratulations to the founding team of Foodworld on starting the Indian retail revolution and to their successors on continuing it.

Owen Price

Leveraging another brand!

I saw this interesting advertisement by Amul that has leveraged the current craze of Zoozoos unleashed by Vodaphone!

It is always interesting to see one brand leverage another and raises many points in the mind of a marketer, such as which brand actually benefits. Would I recall Amul better because of the Zoozoos or have the Zoozoo’s just got some more incremental exposure. Of course, it could very well be that this is a collaborative effort! But, one thing is clear. Obviously the Zoozoos have become a craze and Amul - in their usual style of leveraging current trends have featured this.

Retail advertisements always feature other brands; but that is to inform the customers about the range and choice available. It helps build the retail brand as range is an important element in the value proposition. However, Private Label is emerging as the alternative to the brands. That’s another topic and shall deal with it later. (Someone, please remind me of all the topics I have promised to deal with later!!!)

I am reminded of another such advertisement, which was not a collaborative effort and was a pleasant surprise when I opened the paper to see it!


This advertisement for Yellow Pages appeared in Bangalore in 2002/ 03. The obvious message was the enormous consumer franchise that the stores had built up - strong enough for another brand to leverage the same. Did Foodworld benefit or did Yellow Pages garner more advertisements; I don’t know!


Personally, I treasure this advertisement as the best certificate or award anyone can give me for my role as the marketing head for RPG Foodworld. In fact, I have this advertisement framed and put up. This is a valuable part of my memorabilia. It would be remiss, if I did not mention here that this became a reality because of the pioneering team which worked like a well oiled machine, in which I was a cog. In that sense, this is a public acknowledgement for the team which built the first successful and sustainable supermarket chain of India. Never mind what it is called today!!! :-)

A delightful surprise

The anniversary of the first store had stirred up a lot more of emotions than I had thought!! I was fortunate to be at the store today morning and ended up participating in the Birthday celebrations. The customary cake cutting was there and I was invited to join in in my capacity as an alumni!! Shared some of the memorable nostalgia that people have mentioned, especially the vastu and puja bit.

Another picture for posterity and fond memories. Cutting of the cake and Mr. Murali offering the cake to Mr. Atanu. Truly Old is Gold!!

P.S. - I realised that the cake cutting happened at almost the same spot where Smt. M S Subbulakshmi had lit the lamp, 13 years ago!

Guest post by Mr. Ganesh Chella on the Anniversary

Mr. Chella in his comment, has expressed the keen nostalgia which runs as a common thread right through. A part of the founding team of Indian Corporate Retail - his comments for you as a Guest post.

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Dear Rajesh

This is a great initiative and my best compliments for doing this!

I continue to get nostalgic every time I think about my days at RPG Retail. Hiring all you guys at 30% less pay than what you last earned which was in any case very low, seeing the excitement with which all of you worked because you were creating history and not because you wanted to make money, working in the store, solving the innumerable problems for which we had to write rules every day and creating new knowledge which to date remains the only knowledge in organised retailing. We may not have become the biggest and in any case those things seem irrelevant today. But we created a legacy, a great bunch of Retail professionals who knew what they were doing and were deeply passionate about it and who remain the only blue blood retailers to date.

I cannot forget my first day at the R A Puram store. We ran out of sugar and atta by 11.00 am. Raghunandan and I went to our distribution centre (sorry, warehouse, sorry, godown) to pick up some replacement supplies and rush back in our car!!!I cannot forget all the great one liners - "bay watching", "gave Rs 10 for 9" (description in a petty cash voucher) and all the other hilarious events that unfolded every day.I cannot forget all the training programs we conducted in premises amidst construction, I of course cannot forget RIRM, the institution which created the finest front-line staff that India has ever seen.

Let us celebrate this spirit and be proud of what we created!

Ganesh Chella

Special Thanks

Whoever sees this on May 9th 2009 or later, history remains unchanged. The passion and commitment that went into creating a sustainable Corporate Retail model has its players and witness’s!

I sincerely thank everyone who responded to this emotional call to celebrate and reaffirm what we have done and achieved. Special thanks to Mr. Sundaram, who provided almost all the pictures you all saw and enjoyed!

I enjoyed putting this together. Thanks to everyone, once again!

Happy Birthday to Indian Supermarket Retailing!

May 9, 1996 is a special day in the history of corporate retailing in India. That was the day when the first Foodworld (The current Spencer’s Daily) store opened at C P Ramaswamy Road, Chennai and led the way for corporate retail to grow and establish itself in India.

For skeptics and detractors of this view, I quote what was written about the Wright Brothers in Wikipedia; “Although not the first to build and fly experimental aircraft, the Wright brothers were the first to invent aircraft controls that made fixed wing flight”

Similarly, there have been supermarket chains before and after Foodworld. However, Foodworld redefined the perception of grocery and monthly shopping and influenced the consumers to make the switch to self service formats in a sustainable manner. In a manner of speaking this early mover and the footfalls they were able to generate would have surely influenced many of the current operators to look at Retail as an investment option.


Hence, it would be correct to say that Foodworld is the pioneer of today’s corporate chains.
Some names who were a part of this historic moment: The senior team comprised of Mr. P K Mohapatra, Mr. Raghu Pillai, Mr. S Raghunandan, Mr. Shiv Murti, Mr. Ganesh Chella and Mr. Arindam Guha. The others in the team were Late Mr. K P Ramachandran, Mr. Ashoke Bhaskaran, Mr. Atanu Chakraborty, Ms. Geetha Mahadevan, Mr. Eby Mathews, Mr. Sundaram, Mr. G’boy Varghese, Mr. Rajat Das Gupta and so many more.

It would be remiss if I did not mention Late Ms. Usha Ravi, the store manager for the first Foodworld store. Possibly India’s first woman store manager!

The store was inaugurated by the Carnatic music icon, the late M.S. Subbulakshmi - a memorable moment. This went on to herald the pattern of huge crowds without which there never was a Foodworld store opening. With the crush of people inside the 2,400 sq. ft. store increasing and the four cash tills sprouting long lines, Corporate Supermarket Chains had arrived in style that day.


Ah, those heady days of pioneering work!




P.S. - I had mentioned about Indian Corporate Retail being like a teenager just a few days ago. It is indeed a teenager now. It is 13 years old.

Guest post by Shri. H Goenka Esq. on the occasion of the anniversary

In the early 90s, when RPG first conceptualized organized retailing for the Indian markets, consumers in India were largely comfortable with the neighbourhood provision store as their mainstay for home supplies. We knew we were early, as with any pioneering effort and we knew we were in for a long haul. However when we launched, we had a very encouraging response to our small format stores scattered all across South India. Besides retailing food and grocery we were also selling music through the MusicWorld channel, which has today grown to become the largest music retail chain in the country. Footfalls were reasonable at the time, but more importantly we built a strong merchandising process and farm sourcing chain. Our biggest break came when we decided to enter the hypermarket segment. It was the first time anyone had attempted this format in India. To our surprise, the response was overwhelming. We even had to extend the operating hours to much later in the night to cater to the flow of customers. The first hypermarket was opened in Hyderabad followed by Chennai and Delhi. The smaller format which was sized midway between a supermarket and a daily store was growing but at a slow pace. We had about 80 stores by late 1990s and about 40 Music World Stores. By 2004 retailing was gaining momentum and the number of players increased. We stepped up our growth plans and in that process decided to go forward on our own under the Spencer's name. Geographically too we spread across to western, eastern and northern India beyond the south where we had a strong foothold. The last 5 years have been a period of high growth. It has been an immense challenge. We have ensured that our standards on quality and customer experience are not compromised as we grow in scale. Today we have come a long way with over 350 stores across 60 cities covering a retail trading area of 1.3 million square feet and over 4.5 million customers a month. India is a unique market for retailing with a complex consumer structure and buying pattern. We are optimistic of the future of retailing in India in its varied forms as it evolves and matures into what will be the largest segment of organized industry.

Regards,

H Goenka

Reminisces by Mr. P K Mohapatra about the launch