CATEGORIES

How To Make Your Mystery Shopping Effective

Mystery Shopping can be a significant investment for brands to deliver on customer experience and to track whether brand-specific protocols are really being followed in their outlets and customer touch points.

'Good Local Knowledge, Efficient Inventory Handling And An Excellent Product Mix Are The Forte Of The Rajmandir Brand'

Rajmandir Super Market, which operates 10 stores in Delhi spanning 50,000 sq. ft., has been continuously expanding its presence with the objective of building a network of neighborhood stores that can redefine the grocery retail space in Delhi-NCR by offering the freshest and finest food experience to the consumers.Suresh Mittal, Owner of Rajmandir Super Market store chain, who has a handson experience of more than 29 years in the grocery retail sector, shared his retail journey over the years and his plans for the future with Aliya Jamal of Progressive Grocer.

From Staple To Gourmet: Transformation Of Tea Consumption In India

Indians are beginning to explore tea beyond the staple ‘masala chai’ and experiencing as well as demanding teas that cater to various tastes and seasons. Green tea has already become widely popular as a healthy drink and now there is a rising interest in exotic, artisanal and gourmet teas as well.

'We See A Huge Potential For Granola Bars In The Metros And Tier-1 Cities'

Kanupradeep Subramanian, CEO & Director, WIMWI Foods, spoke to Progressive Grocer about how his granola snack bars that sell under the ASAP bars brand has been able to break through the market clutter and become a favorite of the young millennials looking for quick, tasty and healthy snacking.

Greens Hypermarket Typifies Kannur's Retail Boom And Modernization

The development of an International airport has fuelled a modern retail boom in this coastal district of Kerala with local retailers modernizing their formats to offer a more wholesome and delightful shopping experience.

On A High: The Largest Duty-free Retailer In The Subcontinent

Delhi Duty Free Services is on a roll. India’s biggest duty-free retailer achieved its highest monthly sales in the month of June. There were other windfalls as well. The company also recorded its highest daily sales yet, at over $600,000,besides registering over +50% growth in Shop & Collect sales, and highest ever sales in the beauty and liquor categories. Progressive Grocer spoke to Luke Gorringe, CEO, to get a sense of the company’s retailing strategy andwhat it does to make its cash register ring resoundingly month after month. He was joined by Abhijit Das, Head - Marketing, who offered insights into DDFS’s marketing game plan and its digital push.

Trailblazer Of South India's F&G Retail

Established in 1905, Nilgiris is one of the pioneers of organised retail in India and a heritage brand with a storied legacy of delivering quality customer service. Operating under the banner of Future Group, Nilgiris spawns 215 F&G outlets across Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala with a total retail area spanning 4.45 lakh sq.ft. The supermarket chain is positioned as a neighborhood store that guarantees assortment, range and freshness. “Nilgiris operates on the foundation of personal connect that translates into quality service and continues to build on its product range in order to respond to its customer’s evolving needs,” says CEO Venkateshwar Kumar in a chat with Progressive Grocer during which he outlines his plans to propel future growth of Nilgiris by going for a more contemporary look, by building on its existing infrastructure and with the help of more updated technology.

How To Innovate To Make Your Brand A Big Hit

Consumers are eager for innovation when it comes to packaged goods and are interested in trying new food products at the grocery store. This shows immense opportunity for manufacturers and retailers to offer consumers something fresh. Innovation and new products spark excitement in the consumer and generate more opportunities for buying regardless of the shopping channel or medium. New products are the lifeblood of retailing – they infuse verve into existing lines, create completely new categories, and fulfill unmet needs not previously on consumers’ or retailers’ radar. It is not surprising that brands today are continuously looking to the wider food and drinks market to spot trends early on and promote continuous development of more experiential, convenient and innovative product propositions.

The Organic Way Of Life

Nature’s Soul is an organic and sustainable grocery outlet that caters to consumers who are looking to incorporate healthy buying habits into their lifestyle. With an extensive product range consisting of gluten-free and vegan variants, the enterprise aims to bring back traditional and chemicalfree methods of farming. Founder and Director Arjun Sahni speaks to Nimisha Gautam of Progressive Grocer about modern purchasing trends in organic and his outlet’s sourcing strategy.

Practical Solutions

Grocers and CPG companies find success as they embrace the evolution of category management.

'Bakers Are Very Selective Today About The Fats They Use'

Deoki Muchhal, Managing Director of Cargill’s food business in India, speaks to Progressive Grocer about the trends and developments that are shaping the bakery industry in India and the opportunities it presents for manufacturers and retailers.

Metro Cash & Carry Turns Profitable In India After 15 Years Of Operation

METRO was the first cash & carry player to foray into India in 2003. Since then it has opened 27 wholesale distribution centers across the country spanning 1.8 mn sq. ft. of gross floor area and catering to over three million customers nationwide. “It has taken us some time to find the right success formula in India but with a focused approach, we have been able to break-even and turn profitable after 15 years of successful operations in India,” says Arvind Mediratta, Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer at METRO Cash & Carry India, in an exclusive interaction with Progressive Grocer.

Olives From Spain Participates At Aahar For Its Fifth Promotional Campaign In India

OLIVES FROM SPAIN, one of the bigget exporters of olives, participated in Aahar Delhi 2019 to spread awareness about Spanish table olives.

Work In Progress

Don’t expect a food safety silver bullet anytime soon as the grocery industry continues to work through blockchain’s potential and limitations.

We Are Looking At Open 12 New Stores Over The Next Three Years And Plan To Invest Over INR 1,000 Crore Within The Next Five Years

Currently, with northern India as its focus region, LOTS’ objective is to increase its member base and strengthen its foothold in this region. “We have commenced operations in Delhi-NCR and are looking to enter Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan in the coming years,” says Tanit Chearavanont, Managing Director, LOTS Wholesale Solutions, while discussing his company’s strategy with Progressive Grocer about growing its current audience base by multifold and the various initiatives that LOTS is implementing to meet its business objectives in India.

Bringing Value-For-money Products For Consumers Of All Classes

Company and brand profile: Parle, established in 1929, has grown to become India’s leading manufacturer of biscuits and confectionery.

A Growing Market For New Flavors Snacks

Today, more than ever before, eating occasions are now overwhelmingly linked with snacks. Be it ready-to-eat popcorn, veggie chips or nuts, snack items considered better-for-you options are driving sales growth in snack food categories. The growing demand for foods and beverages with unique qualities – natural, functional, energizing, satiating and convenient – are causing consumers, manufacturers and retailers to rethink the traditional snack category, with products continuing to evolve and lines increasingly blurring. Retailers and brands should join hands to promote snacks by helping consumer to shop better and buy products that suit their taste preferences. This can happen only with their combined efforts and will help pave the way to even bigger innovation and expansion in the snacks category.

Why Retailers Need To Change The Game From A Product-centric To Service-centric Approach

Retailers need to find new business models and performance matrices different from GMV (Gross Merchandise Volume) and scale. The ever-changing customer expectations and reducing differentiation in terms of products and range would require retailers to compete on customer service, which is beyond just-on-time delivery.

Decoding The Rapid Rise Of Online Grocery Shopping In India

Online grocery shopping has now become a high value-added service with the expansion of the middle-class population in India. Indians spend more than 50% of their monthly income on groceries, which is why it is not surprising that startups like BigBasket and Grofers have made a mark for themselves in a niche that didn’t even exist a few years ago.

The Pioneers Of ‘Fresh And Frozen' Foods

Rajesh Francis, Director, MagSon-Fresh, and Frozen, speaks to Progressive Grocer about the fresh assortments and dairy products available at his stores and how MagSon has become the choice retailer of frozen and processed foods in Gujarat and Maharashtra.

Cultivating Kid Consumers

Summer fruits and veggies offer a hot opportunity for grocers to woo young customers.

Pioneers Of Modern Retail In North Maharashtra

Navjeevan Super Shop, which has been in business for over 70 years now, is widely regarded as the supermarket pioneer in north Maharashtra. Beginning its journey from a humble kirana store in Jalgaon in 1946, it opened its first self-service store in the city in 1993 and since then, it has taken impressive strides in modern food and grocery retailing. From 2007 onwards, Navjeevan has been on an expansion drive and opened five stores in quick succession. As of date, there are seven Navjeevan supermarkets in operation, all in Jalgaon, with a retail area spanning 21,000 square feet, which bring in a monthly revenue of about Rs. 5 crore.

Healthy Chill

Desire for fresher, better-for-you options creates opportunities in refrigerated foods.

How Safe Is Mineral Water From Chemical Impurities?

There are two types of water that is bottled – one is packaged drinking water and the other is packaged natural mineral water. The difference between the two is that they come from different sources and both types have different purification standards.

Sparkling Wine Calls The Shots!

Growing consumer inclination towards global brands and beverages with less alcohol content has turned out to be a great proposition for existing wine players and new entrants to play with innovative flavours and introduce finer qualities of wine in the country.

Cross-Promotional Power

Build bigger baskets with produce pairings.

New Ways To Unlock Value In Retail

Monitoring and measuring the impact of data-driven initiatives against companyspecific metrics such as gross profit, revenue and inventory carrying costs, can offer significant benefits.

Redefining Retail Warehousing With Automation

The retail industry is expected to reach to US$ 1 trillion by 2020, attaining a CAGR of 10.76 per cent between 2015-2020.

Rising Demand For Residue-free Vegetables

The drastic shift in consumer behaviour towards healthy consumption has created an enormous opportunity for many budding entrepreneurs to enter residue-free farming.

The Bean-To-bar Chocolatier And Retailer Of Pondicherry

India’s growing awareness of artisanal chocolates has consumers paying more for better quality and healthier alternatives as more companies enter the fray to produce high quality, hand-crafted chocolates made of primarily locally sourced ingredients.