\nSTOrai profiles the inaugural edition of the Kongu Retail Summit at Coimbatore on March 18 2014.\u00a0 Southern India is the home of both retail and organized trade and RAI’s Southern council has long been of the view that networking events in markets such as Coimbatore, Madurai and Kochi were required, in addition to the meets at Chennai and Bangalore.<\/p>\n

The event was attended by 150 people, including RAI members and academic partners.
\nSTOrai presents quotable quotes and glimpses:<\/p>\n

\u201cSouth India is the birthplace of both – retail and modern retail in India. It has 25% of the population of the country but 30% of the retail turnover\u201d \u2013 said Bijou Kurien during his Key Note Address.\u00a0 \u201cSouth India has built strong vibrant brands \u2013 and malls recognize that they need local and regional brands as much as they need their national counterparts\u201d, he added.<\/p>\n

– Bijou Kurien<\/p>\n

\u201cFamily owned businesses are an extension of the family environment for our staff\u201d said M. Banumathi, Head Naidu Hall, Kovai, during the panel discussion on the Dynamics of Family owned businesses.\u00a0 Her co-panelist, T.Shantakumar, MD, Kirtilals said \u201cProfessionals have a role to play as family owned businesses grow. However, the key to success for both sides is to ensure that the professionals are able to align with family culture and business values\u201d.
\nRead More Here: http:\/\/goo.gl\/f3flrQ<\/a><\/p>\n

The panel on \u201cThe Art and Science of retailing\u201d provided rich insights.
\nK.R. Nagarajan, Founder & MD, Ramraj Cotton spoke about his journey of converting the traditional ‘veshti’\u00a0 into ‘occasion wear’ \u2013 something to be worn with pride and dignity , which resulted in a business which today spans 59 stores.\u00a0 \u201cThe power of white is in its purity.\u00a0 Customers who wear pristine white clothes for 21 days, find themselves unable to revert to colored clothes.\u00a0 But white does not mean simple \u2013 we sell 2500 designs of dhotis \u2013 because customer tastes change from Kochi to Kovai to Kumbakonam\u201d.
\nRead more here:\u00a0http:\/\/goo.gl\/WQb3KL<\/a><\/p>\n

Nigam Patel, Director, Prozone CSC spoke about how tier 2 cities in India are attractive mall destinations.<\/p>\n

\u201cManaging a mall is a long term play \u2013 it needs patience.\u00a0 We’ve also learnt that we need a mix of local and national retailers\u201d.<\/p>\n

His co-panelist, Girish Pande, COO, Fun Cinemas, concurred – \u201cWe’ve built malls in 9 tier 2 cities and we find these markets to be vibrant. Kovai Fun Cinemas sees 100,000 people per month, one of the highest in India.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more here: http:\/\/goo.gl\/vKbtyA<\/a><\/p>\n

P Subramaniam, Consultant, RmKV Silks, spoke about the learning process they went through while deciding to move from high street to malls.<\/p>\n

\u201cInspite of being a strong brand in Chennai and Tirunelveli the decision to set up a store in Brookefields mall in Kovai was taken after much debate \u2013 and was driven as much by market potential as by the lack of high street properties\u201d.<\/p>\n

Read more here: http:\/\/goo.gl\/vKbtyA<\/a><\/p>\n

The panel on multi-channel retail pointed out that for regional retailers \u2013 going online, or being present on social media is a non-negotiable.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou either leverage technology or go out of business\u201d \u2013 was how M. Ramakrishnan, MD, Thulasi Pharmacy\u00a0 put it .<\/p>\n

Read More Here: http:\/\/goo.gl\/KTZET6<\/a><\/p>\n

Delegate feedback showed that RAI’s use of bi-lingual panel discussions met with much appreciation, something we intend to continue in future events in the South.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

STOrai profiles the inaugural edition of the Kongu Retail Summit at Coimbatore on March 18 2014.\u00a0 Southern India is the home of both retail and organized trade and RAI’s Southern council has long been of the view that networking events… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[78,40,35,70,43],"tags":[9],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.rai.net.in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2630"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.rai.net.in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.rai.net.in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.rai.net.in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.rai.net.in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2630"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blog.rai.net.in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2630\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2637,"href":"https:\/\/blog.rai.net.in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2630\/revisions\/2637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.rai.net.in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.rai.net.in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.rai.net.in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}