Future group – Still the Maharaja of India Retail Industry

One person in Future group doesn't required introduction in India. He is the famous entrepreneur who lifted the Indian retail industry to international standard. Yes, I am referring to our “Mall King Mr. Kishore Biyani” who emerged from a normal family in Gujarat to the owner of India’s biggest retail chain, Big Bazaar. He incorporated his company in 1987 as Manz Wear Private Ltd and launched the popular brand “PANTALOONS”.

The business model of Big Bazaar actually evolved from a Southern Indian Retail store called Saravana Store, as he mentioned in his book “It Happened in India”. He got the inspiration of Big Bazaar in Sept 2000 when he was standing outside Saravana stores in Ranganathan Street, Chennai. Saravana Stores is a 25 years old family run business which has its presence in textile, retail, jewelry, etc. and known for its price affordable products.

Mr. Kishore Biyani understood that Indians really love to do shopping with their family, after witnessing families (including children and senior citizens) and young couples shopping in Saravana Stories. 

During the journey of Future group, Mr. Kishore has confidently implemented various strategies and made the company to still stand in its successful path. Let us see few of those strategies to understand its impact on the retail industry.

1. Fast expansion of retail space: Future group landed its foot in modern retail by establishing its first store of 8000 sq. ft. in 1997 in Kolkata. However, its current retail space is 16.5 million sq. ft. which clearly showed the ability of Mr. Kishore Biyani to expand its store to reach large number of people. Big bazaar, so far, has touched 35-40% of Indian population and expecting to reach 70% through its new business strategy Big Bazaar Direct (BBD). (Special Note: In 2001, after the acceptance of Big Bazaar, the company opened three more stores in Kolkata, Bangalore and Hyderabad. The reason behind the choice of these locations is the boom of Information Technology (IT) industry in these cities those days. He believed that the IT industry will change the lifestyle of people and help to develop modern shopping.)
   
2. Developing new brands: Brand creation and development is the vital part of future group. The company so far has launched three brands for three main categories: Pantaloons (formal trouser brand), Bare (denim brand) and John Miller (formal shirt brand). Future group has started this trend of brand building with Pantaloons in initial stage of establishment and also developed few western brands like Clark (UK footwear retailer) and Celio (Fashion wear maker from France) through joint ventures.
   
   
   
3. Franchisee Model: Future group understand the franchisee model effectively and used it for expanding stores all over India rapidly. Big bazaar stores across India are mostly handled by franchisees. The store space and people management has to be done by franchisee, whereas the stocks are supplied by Future Group. It’s a simple but an efficient model used to magnify business in India.
4. Invite the masses: Big bazaar stay connected with the customer by providing exactly what they need. Its strategy of providing low-cost product in a specific day has certainly turned the Indian towards the doors of Big Bazaar. It declared a day as “Saal Ka Sabse Sasta Din” (cheapest day) and provided the products cheaper compare to normal days. The special part of the marketing activity is the language it uses to communicate. It prefers to use Hindi so that the slogan will reach most of the Indian customers. Using this strategy, it tries to get two benefits: i) control over the supply chain of products (i.e. clear the inventory and order new stocks) ii) Pulls more new customers to shop. Besides this, it communicated various slogans (Isse Sasta Aur Accha Kahin Nahin/Hafte ka Sabse Sasta Din/Purana Do Naya Lo… Badal Dalo)to inform the sales of low-cost products.
   
5. All products at one place: Mr. Biyani doesn’t want any customer to leave Big Bazaar saying some items are not available in the store. He designed this retail store in such a way that all the products including FMCG, apparels, vegetables, fruits, etc. are available at one place, along with the freedom of choice in products which indeed encourage shopping.

The journey of Future group is very unique. It is this company which developed the modern retail industry from scratch and stood on top against the growing competitions and market threats. It overwhelmed all the challenges through its customer centric approach and innovations. Today, whatever the brand people buy, they still say that they brought it in Big Bazaar. This is the image he has created and that’s why he is called as Maharaja of Indian retail industry.