The latest news about the Future Group is that it has rechristened Pantaloon Retail India as Future Market & Consumer group Ltd. And, the acronym for that is FMCG. Sounds smart. Is it a marketing ploy or it happened by chance or it was "Luck By Chance" ? "It was not a conscious decision" , an official of FMCG.
Damodar Mall, chief executive officer of incubation & innovation, Future Group, said it's just the proposed name and not the final one. "We will have to get a series of approvals before it is finalised," Mall said. Besides, the company has recently announced plans to restructure its retail businesses across three verticals fashion, retail and consumer durables.
Apart from renaming itself, the group is targeting its sales by around 35 % to Rs 750 crore for the fiscal ending June 30 2009. The group has undertaken several strategic initiatives to ensure robust growth despite slowdown in consumer demand.
For starters, the group has decided that the price of products sold through the Pantaloons chain will be reduced to the level of 2007. It expects such a strategy will provide a compelling entry-level price point to consumers vis-àvis competing retail chains.
Future Group currently operates 44 Pantaloons outlets across India over a total of 1.2 million sqft. The group plans to open six more Pantaloon stores by October, including two in Bangalore and one in Kolkata. The group is also driving operational efficiency at Pantaloon outlets. This is through tightening of supply-chain and maintaining an optimised product replenishment system.
These improvements will go a long way.
Source:The Economic Times