RURAL INDIA BOOMS

Rural India is booming like never before. At an estimated 720 - 790 million consumers, the Indian rural market has begun to attain size and growth rates to make it very attractive to companies. According to a report by CII and Tecnopak 'Rural markets are growing at double the rate of urban markets for many product categories'. Rural India accounts for more than 45% of total market in most consumer products including FMCG, consumer durables, two wheelers and 4 wheelers.

The FMCG Market last year has grown by 23% in rural India ( 18% in Urban India)

Consumer Durables are growing by 15% in rural India

Telecom is showing a growth of 31%

Growth and Penetration of some key FMCG categories in rural India

(Source IMRB, Period Dec 2008 to November 2009)

Rural India contributes to 43% of national income. There has been a consistent increase in incomes in rural India. Rural Income stood at $ 220 Billion ( Rs 9.9 lac crores) in 2004-05 which is expected to grow to $ 424 Billion ( Rs 19.12 lac crores) by 2010-11, a CAGR of 12 %. ( Source CII-Tecnopak).

There is no doubt that the aspirations and lifestyle of consumers in rural India is growing and are fast approaching the urban consumers lifestyle. The result - rural consumer now want's products and services that enhance his lifestyle - even though he is still very price conscious and demands value for money.

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Shoprite changes hands - now with Future Group

South Africa's largest grocery retail chain, Shoprite Holding's sole outlet in India located at Mumbai has been taken over by the Future Group. The 55,000 sq ft 'Shoprite Store' sold multibrand products in India. This was till now operated in India by Nirmal Lifestyle through a franchisee agreement with Shoprite Holdings Ltd.
Future Group plans to launch a new brand of stores and the Shoprite outlet will be first in this format. These stores will consist of 85% food and grocery merchandise and would also have a instore bakery. Whereas Future Group has a food supermarket chain called 'Food Bazaar', these outlets are much smaller in size ranging from 10,000 to 15,000 sq ft. Shoprite would be the first large format food outlet of the Future Group. The new store is expected to be launches on the 28th of this month.
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Malls of India

The last few years have seen a substantial growth in the no of malls in India. Some of the largest malls in India are detailed below

Malls of India

The malls in India however pale in comparison to malls present around the world. Some of the world's larges malls are

World's Largest Malls

The largest Indian mall is just about one fourth the size of Dubai Mall - an indication of where India stands today and the huge potential for more malls to come up. This is more so if one takes into account the handsome growth that India is witnessing and huge increase in disposable incomes now with the Indian Consumer.

Aditya Birla Retail's Future Plans for 'More Hypermarkets'

Aditya Birla Retail is planning to invest aggressively in the coming years. It plans to invest Rs 1800 crores ( $ 400 million) over the next 8 years to add substantial no of it’s ‘More’ Hypermarkets pan India. The company is planning addition of one store per month at an investment of Rs 20 crores ( $ 4.5 Million).

Aditya Birla Retail has currently
I. Supermarkets 632 Nos
II. Hypermarkets 6 Nos

Plans to increase ‘More’ Hypermarkets to 100
The minimum size of the Hypermarkets is 50,000 sq.ft whereas the supermarkets are around 2500 sq. ft in size.

The current Indian Retail sector is estimated to be $ 350 Billion and growing at 15% per annum.