FDI in Retail drives the discussion at the CII Conclave at IRF 2010

Mumbai, Sept 28, 2010: The India Retail Forum (IRF 2010) held at Renaissance, Mumbai saw an invigorating debate on FDI in retail. Driven by the CII Conclave the panelist included retail barons like Kishore Biyani – Founder & CEO, Future Group, Raj Jain – President, Wal-Mart India and MD & CEO, Bharti Wal-Mart, S. Sivakumar, Chief Executive, Agri Business-ITC, Nivedita Rao, Partner, Amarchand Mangaldas, Ireena Vittal, Principal, Mckinsey & Co, Bijou Kurien, Chairman, IRF 10 & President and Chief Executive, Reliance Retail-Lifestyle, B S Nagesh, Chairman, IRF 09 & Vice Chairman, Shoppers Stop, and Vikram Bakshi, MD, McDonald’s (North & East India).
The retail gurus agreed that ‘You need money to achieve scale, for that you need FDI’.
Kishore Biyani said, “It’s a collective failure on the part of the retail industry to have failed to convince the government regarding FDI in Indian retail. The industry needs to come together and work towards the same. It’s crucial to understand we need an initial investment in order to fulfill the demand.” He also further expressed concerns over the need for supply chain and cold storages. He said, “India is not using their cold chains to its fullest capacity.”

Making his point B S Nagesh said, “Retail is a business you need to believe in, and your money will grow. FDI will help build talent. And government should allow FII in retail.”

Bijou Kurien while giving a perspective on the government’s stand on FDI, said, “Most governments oppose foreign funds.” With reference to PE in market segment, he said, “Domestic availability of cash flow is a constraint. If you need to grow a market you to do things differently such as pricing, sourcing and designing strategies.”

Ireena Vittal added a different perspective when she said, “The law needs to balance both environments, maybe 49 per cent FDI investment. Consumers are ready for organized retail, they do not differentiate between foreign and local retail. All they look for is good variety and prices.”
Raj Jain providing a Wal-Mart perspective said, “Wal-Mart’s biggest challenge in India is understanding the consumer buying behavior. Wal-Mart as a format helps smaller retailers; there is transparency of pricing, availability, understanding of issues, seeing new products and hygiene factors.”

Speaking for FDI Vikram Bakshi said that, “We are not an India of the past we are a confident country which is only growing.”
The retail giants unanimously agreed for the need to join hands and impress upon the government the importance of retail expansion in India.