A- 1.) Tie –ups with Professional Institutes to overcome the Problem of trained manpower
Retail Houses like Reliance Retail and Future group are most likely to ink a strategic partnership with NIFT. The partnership will provide Reliance Retail with trained pool of professionals, latest designs and access to NIFT research base.The MoU will be signed up by December 2006. The partnership will include industry sabbatical for NIFT faculty and scholarship for the students.
Recently, even Raymonds has inked a similar partnership with NIFT. NIFT plans to enter into partnerships with India’s leading Retailers to commercialise its recently launched fashion label.
Source : “ The Economic Times dated 16/1/2006
2.) Reduction of Commission paid to traders and middlemen and improving quality of products like vegetables
Reliance Fresh and Pantaloon have begun buying potato futures on MCX. MCX in turn charges a premium from cold storage owners who want to be on its list of potato warehouses.Futures trading has become a winner for MCX with almost 40,000 tonnes being traded everyday. Retailers like Reliance and Pantaloon get fresh potatoes and other vegetables and also save on commission paid to traders and middlemen. Also, when prices on the exchange fall below the spot market,they will get vegetables cheaper from the exchange than the open market.This means opening of more cold storages across the country. The quality is being ensured by fitting the selected warehouses with a meter to constantly monitor temperature and moisture. This meter will be connected through a radio antenna with MCX’s servers in Mumbai.
Source: The Economic Times dated 14/11/2006
3.) Challenges faced by Pantaloon Retail like the challenge of overcoming the Free cash flows which are negative, and to increase customer intelligence and expansion.
Pantaloon Retail’s Mr . Kishore Biyani is about to raise funds for a high risk