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Tag: india

  • Amazon India To Have 10,000 Electric Vehicles In Its Delivery Fleet By 2025

    Amazon India To Have 10,000 Electric Vehicles In Its Delivery Fleet By 2025

    Amazon India said that it will induct about 10,000 electric vehicles in its delivery fleet in the country. The e-commerce giant says that the idea is to reduce its carbon footprint in the country in accordance to the Climate Pledge that Amazon has signed. As part of the pledge, Amazon announced its plans to introduce 10,000 EVs into its delivery fleet globally in 2022 and one lakh vehicles by 2030, saving 4 million metric tonnes of carbon per year by 2030. Amazon had already begun an EV pilot project in a few cities across India and the learnings from the pilot project has helped the company to have a scalable and a long term EV delivery fleet by 2025. Amazon India announced this right after Amazon President and CEO, Jeff Bezos made a trip to India and announced an investment of $ 1 billion and creation of 1 million jobs by 2025.

    “The fleet of 10,000 EVs-including three-wheeler and four-wheeler vehicles-has been designed and manufactured by original equipment manufacturers in India,” the company said in a statement. The company has been working with a few Indian companies in order to ready a fleet of electric vehicles in its delivery fleet to ensure that last mile deliveries are sustainable. The government’s focus to encourage the adoption of electric vehicles in the country, and steps towards setting up of charging infrastructure with the FAME II policy, has helped the company accelerate and chart its vision for EVs in India, it added.

    “At Amazon India, we are committed to building a supply chain that will minimize the environmental impact of our operations,” Akhil Saxena, vice president for customer fulfillment (Asia Pacific and Emerging Markets) at Amazon, said in a statement.

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  • Audi To Launch Only New Models In India

    Audi To Launch Only New Models In India

    Audi India kept Indian customers waiting for new models for quite some time. That said, the German carmaker now has a new plan in place and is gearing up to bring only new models or new generation models to our shores, and it has already started with the Audi Q8. The company also shared that Audi will be focusing on petrol, plug-in hybrid and electric models in the Indian market and its future launches will adhere to the plan.

    Balbir Singh Dhillon, Head- Audi India said, “We will only launch all-new models like the Q8 or new generation models in India going forward and we have quite a few products in the pipeline. On the onset of the BS6 norms, our focus will be on petrol models followed by plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles. Around 30-35 percent of our sales come from petrol models and that ratio should go up.”

    The Audi Q8 was launched in India on January 15 and will be sold as a completely built unit (CBU). Audi had also launched the new-generation A6 in India last year in October and is gearing up to launch the new-generation A8 next month. We have already seen spy images of a slew of Audi cars undergoing testing like the next-generation A7 Sportback, next-generation Audi Q7 and RS6 and all new models are headed to our market as well after their global launch. Audi India has also chalked out a long term plan for the Indian market which is internally called ‘Strategy 2025’. The foundation of the Strategy 2025 primarily relies on four pillars- Customer Connectivity, New Products, Network Expansion and Digitalisation.

    Dhillon also mentioned about setting up more dealerships across India to expand its reach in the market and digitalization will play a key role in connecting to its customers. However, the company has not disclosed any target as yet. Moreover, upcoming Audi cars will also feature connected car tech which apart from being trendy, will also keep customers connected to the services on the go. As we have already reported earlier, the German carmaker is also gearing up to foray into the electric space in our market this year with the launch of the e-Tron electric SUV.

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  • Walmart India lays off management executives

    Walmart India lays off management executives

    Walmart India will let go around a third of its top executives at its Gurugram headquarters. The retailer has been struggling in the territory and is now responding by laying off more than 100 top-level executives, with more terminations expected to come later. It will also close its Mumbai fulfillment center and its largest warehouse, and will hold plans to open new stores within the Indian market.

    “We are always looking for ways to operate more effectively to serve our members,” said a spokesperson for Walmart India. “This requires us to review our corporate structure to ensure that we are organized in the right way to best meet the needs of our members. Impacted associates have been offered enhanced severance benefits and outplacement services to support their transition.”

    Following a decade of trade within India, Walmart’s sales growth has remained problematic, with the firm recording a net loss of US$24.26 million during the last fiscal year.

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  • The improved popularity of Cricket and the billions it makes in India

    The improved popularity of Cricket and the billions it makes in India

    Cricket is one of the most popular sports in countries like the United Kingdom, India, and Australia. However, most of the market share of this sport is taken by India considering how the country has such a large population. In fact, the largest event in the sport, Indian Premier League (IPL) is sometimes responsible for revenues averaging $3 billion within a year.

    In fact, 2004 was the best performing year for the IPL where it managed to generate around $4.1 billion revenue just from advertising, player auctions and viewership fees. The only time that it managed to match the same numbers was in 2017, signaling that the sport is starting to become more and more popular over the last few years after decreasing significantly in the decade.

    How the IPL generates income

    The Indian Premier League, much like any other sports industry in the world relies on advertising, viewership tickets and the auctions conducted on the players. Not to mention dozens of sponsors vying for a spot on the sportsmen’s uniforms and etc.

    Whatever the sports industry gets their hands on, they manage to generate some income out of it, but there are some that are better at it.

    When it comes to world coverage, there is no sport that beats football, but in terms of the volume of viewers, Cricket is starting to climb the ranking thanks to the millions of viewers from India alone.

    You see, by pairing up the prices of the United Kingdom and Australia with the viewership of India, Cricket is able to generate billions of dollars by simply recording the games and airing them on specific channels where they get additionally profitable advertising deals.

    A darker side of Cricket

    Finally, we have one of the most popular and pretty much ancient ways of generating profit from sports. Betting.

    Cricket, much like any other sport in the world has a large betting industry. Every viewer has the opportunity to place a bet on their favorite player as well as a team to predict the outcome of a match. If they were correct, they get a significantly large sum of money back.

    However, considering how Cricket is a sport where almost everything can go wrong within seconds of starting the game, the chance to win is much lower. However, in order to compensate for these issues, especially during the Indian Premier League 2020, most betting companies increase the prize pool to make it more enticing.

    It would be false to say that nobody wins when betting on Cricket, but it’s much harder and complicated when comparing it to betting on football or basketball.

    2019 proceedings to predict 2020

    The IPL conducted in 2019 received the valuation of around $6.8 billion, giving the sport the highest value it has ever seen in the past.

    In terms of ad revenue, the 2019 IPL season managed to bring in slightly more than it’s 2018 predecessor, but that doesn’t mean that 2020 will see an increase on that number as well.

    You see, when industries grow extremely fast over the years, every year becomes harder and harder to match. Imagine a company that had the goal of achieving $20 million in revenue in 2015. Let’s say they managed to do it and increased their goals for 2016 of around $22 million. They reached it as well but with much more hard work and dedication. Say this continues up until 2018 where the company barely managed to reach its goal of $30 million in revenue. So much so that they had to fire some employees along the way just to reach it.

    The $35 million goals for 2019 would become even harder, and thus have the possibility of making the company fail. Constant growth is not maintainable and hyping it up will bring a lot more damage than it will fix.

    Therefore, there are many experts saying that overcoming the expectations of IPL 2020 revenue is going to be nearly impossible.

    Because of this, it is expected that in the year 2020 there will be a lot fewer sponsors vouching for teams and individual players, fewer people watching the events and even players participating in it due to slightly lowered salaries and payouts.

    Overall, the expectations on IPL 2020 performance are very pessimistic, however, should they prove to overcome this pessimism, it’s almost guaranteed to kickstart a new level of confidence in the sport for coming seasons in 2021 and 2022. So IPL 2020 is more of an investment for the sport than the organizers can realize.

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  • Tata Motors Group’s Global Wholesales Declined By 3% In December 2019

    Tata Motors Group’s Global Wholesales Declined By 3% In December 2019

    Global wholesales for JaguarLand Rover along stood at 50,001 vehicles, which included the 5,492 vehicles wholesaled by CJLR, the joint venture between JLR and Chery Automobiles. As for the total wholesales from the Jaguar brand alone, for the month, it stood at 12,742 vehicles, while Land Rover’s contribution to the total wholesales for December 2019 was 37,259 vehicles.

    On the other hand, global wholesales of all Tata Motors’ commercial vehicles and Tata Daewoo range in December 2019 were at 34,526 units, lower by 15 percent, as against the 40,619 units wholesaled in December 2018.

    In December 2019, Tata Motors’ domestic sales stood at 44,254 units (PV + CV), a decline of 12 percent in volumes as compared to 50,440 units sold in December 2018. As for year-to-date sales, Tata’s volumes for FY2020 (April-December) stood at 347,796 units, down by 30 percent over 497,972 units sold during the same period the fiscal.

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  • AirAsia picks creative agency in India

    AirAsia picks creative agency in India

    AirAsia India has appointed Wunderman Thompson South Asia to manage creative duties following a pitch in 2019. The agency will be responsible for brand strategy and shaping the communications narrative in India, taking care of above-the-line and digital creative mandates.

    According to the press statement, Wunderman Thompson understood AirAsia India’s strategic and brand objectives and will be working on developing the brand’s strong and sustainable positioning that will cut across geographies, demographics, and mindsets and deliver differentiated content with incisive insights. A+M has reached out to Wunderman Thompson for additional information.

    AirAsia India is a joint venture between Tata Sons and AirAsia Investment. AirAsia India commenced operations on 12 June 2014 with Bengaluru as its primary hub. Its agenda is to drive salience across markets with customized content and clutter-breaking communication that inspires diverse audiences with its brand promise and the aspirational journey ahead.

    AirAsia India’s CMO Siddhartha Butalia said the agency approached the opportunity with strong strategic insights and compelling creative ideas that bring the emotion and inspiration back to travel. “We’re looking forward to partnering with them to drive consideration and relevance across the customer journey, take off to even greater heights and explore new territories,” Butalia added.

    Senior VP and managing partner at Wunderman Thompson, Kundan Joshee, said AirAsia has a unique value proposition and a distinct challenger brand spirit that makes it such a powerful brand.

    “Our job is to partner with AirAsia and bring alive its philosophy of service, efficiency and innovation. In today’s times, it’s essential for a brand to have multiple conversations with people across touchpoints and this gives us the opportunity to do new-age work and drive interesting conversations around the brand,” he said.

    Closer to home, AirAsia Group and Universal Music Group partnered last year to launch RedRecords, a new label partnership focused on signing, developing and breaking new Asian artists and elevating “A-pop” globally to new audiences throughout the region and around the world. RedRecords will focus on discovering and developing talent from Southeast Asia and throughout the wider continent and form a clear and unique sound that reflects the diverse and rich musical culture of the continent.

    The airline also announced last November that it is expanding its online offering to include flights on other airlines as it transforms airasia.com into Asia Pacific’s leading travel and lifestyle platform. This was done in partnership with leading travel technology company Kiwi.com. It also unveiled SNAP, a new name for flight + hotel packages on airasia.com offering the lowest guaranteed package prices in 2019.

  • AirAsia launches new flights to Chendu from Penang

    AirAsia launches new flights to Chendu from Penang

    Low-cost carrier AirAsia Bhd has launched new flights to Chengdu, the capital city of Sichuan Province, China for travelers flying out of Malaysia’s northern hub Penang.

    These new three times weekly direct flights commencing 8 March 2020 will provide exclusive air connectivity between Penang to Sichuan Province.

    “We are excited to announce our first new route of the new year, welcoming Visit Malaysia 2020 and in conjunction with Experience Penang 2020.

    “Penang is one of our largest secondary hubs in Peninsular Malaysia, to which we have flown more than 2.4 million guests to the island last year.

    “This is our first route from Penang to Mainland China and we are confident this additional route will continue to boost visitor arrivals into Penang, and vice versa,” AirAsia Malaysia chief executive officer Riad Asmat said in a statement today.

    Best known as home to the adorable giant pandas, Chengdu is a thriving city with plenty to do and taste.

    With many natural, cultural and historical sights, some of the must-visit attractions include the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, Jinli Ancient Street and the Leshan Giant Buddha and Wenshu Monastery.

    Named by UNESCO as a ‘City of Gastronomy’, many popular Chinese dishes such as Mapo Tofu and Kung Pao Chicken originate from the region.

    Travelers can also choose to unwind by enjoying aromatic tea at any of the local teahouses.

    Chengdu is also a gateway to the western territories of China, including Tibet, which its capital Lhasa is home to the historical center of Tibetan Buddhism and the famous Potala Palace, as well as the Unesco World Heritage Site Jiuzhaigou, one of the most scenic places in China.

    Besides Chengdu, AirAsia currently flies to 12 destinations from its Penang hub, namely Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City, Surabaya, Jakarta, Medan, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Johor Bahru, Langkawi, Melaka, Kota Kinabalu and Kuching.

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  • Indian tea chain Chai Kings ready for expansion

    Indian tea chain Chai Kings ready for expansion

    Indian tea retailer Chai Kings has secured US$1 million in funding from a group of angel investors, including The Chennai Angels, Hyderabad Angels and TiE India Angels.

    The Chennai-based tea retail chain aims to launch 100 stores over the next five years and become the nationally preferred purveyor of chai teas. It is currently operating in 40 locations and delivers tea to customers’ doorsteps within Chennai.

    “We are very excited to partner with Chai Kings in the bridge round,” said The Chennai Angels’ lead investor in the round Piyush Bhandari. “We believe the company has a strong leadership team with immense potential to grow and expand across India. The new investment reiterates our commitment towards building a sustainable and scalable Indian QSR.”

    “We are happy with the success and progress of our brand in Chennai, and this funding round will help us expand into newer cities,” said Chai Kings CEO Jahabar Sadique. “We hope to enter Coimbatore, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad in this year, and get closer to our target of 100 stores in five years. Apart from expansions, the bulk of this funding will be utilized to strengthen our operations and supply chain management.”

  • Bangladesh garment factories urged to embrace sustainable behavor

    Bangladesh garment factories urged to embrace sustainable behavor

    Bangladesh garment factories must continue to invest in making their operations more sustainable if they hope to win business over other major competing sourcing countries such as Vietnam, Cambodia and Indonesia, says data and analytics company GlobalData.

    In line with this, the country is looking to increase its garment exports from US$34 billion in the financial year ending last June to US$50 billion next year.

    In 2018, 67 factories had adopted the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification, which evaluates sustainable sites, water efficiency, energy, indoor environment and innovation. Eight were LEED-platinum certified. But with eco-credentials playing a greater role in how consumers today shop, more factories need to get on board.

    Hannah Abdulla, apparel correspondent at GlobalData, says the owners of Bangladesh garment factories are growing increasingly concerned they are losing business to rival sourcing countries.

    “Where buyers were previously concerned with mass-produced, cheap goods, the focus is now on better quality and sustainably sourced (value-added) items. Green factories have an edge; this is what helps sets them apart from the competition.”

    With Bangladesh looking to increase the investments, big changes need to be made to secure additional business from the higher-paying customer, says Abdulla.

    “While change has happened at several factories, this needs to be scaled up. More factories need to get on board if Bangladesh is going to convince global players it remains a worthy contender in the readymade garment space.

    “For the national industry to be viewed as one that is an environmentally-sustainable apparel sector with an international reputation for good practice, it needs to move beyond a minority of factories implementing sustainable measures.”

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  • Sluggish sales dampen India retail leasing activity

    Sluggish sales dampen India retail leasing activity

    Indian retail leasing activity in major cities slumped 35 percent last year as the country’s economy continued on a sluggish course.

    “It’s very obviously not business as usual in the Indian retail sector, and retailers have had to reduce costs – not least of all by realignment of retail spending,” said Anuj Kejriwal, MD and CEO at Anarock Retail.

    According to data from real-estate services provider Anarock, Indian retail leasing activity in the nation’s seven largest cities dropped from 5.5 million sqft in 2018 to 3.6 million sqft last year.

    The worst-affected sector was fashion where falling consumer spending has impacted the top line of several major retail groups, including V-Bazaar and 1-India Family Mart, both of which say they are scaling back expansion plans this year.

    “The apparel industry has been hit with a triple whammy – GST, credit squeeze on small and medium enterprises, and increased competition due to slowdown in global demand,” said Kejriwal.

    With spending on fashion declining, there has been “a significant reduction in demand” for new fashion-specific mall spaces among local brands and global brands, he says, are “staying put but not expanding”.

    Kejriwal said downward revisions of India’s GDP growth rate are bound to be reflected in the consumption-driven retail industry, with most categories affected.

    “Discretionary spending remains low and the ticket sizes of purchases have shrunk – with predictable impact on retail leasing activity. Slow sales and sluggish activity across sectors such as automobiles, fashion and telecom are translating into reduced leasing across retail spaces as players shift their operational strategy,” he said.

    Jewelry, electronics, books and music, hypermarkets and men’s formal clothing are other retail categories where leasing activity declined last year.

    The standout exceptions in retail are food and beverage, family entertainment centers, cinemas and beauty/wellness boutiques.

    “These verticals have seen a decent rise in space leasing and are doing fairly good business depending on factors such as location, accessibility, brands, etc,” said Kejriwal.

    “Though rising rentals in prime locations hinder the growth plans of many brands, Indians’ affinity to eating out and entertainment remains undiminished.”

    Kejriwal said many Indian retailers must now consider consolidation and realignment of their operational structure. “Long-vision players are taking steps to boost productivity through technological innovations, automation of production and analytics-driven decision making. The retail sector is also renewing its focus on consumer-centric strategies in order to strengthen customer loyalty.”

    India’s retail market is predicted to grow to US$1.3 trillion this year, significantly up on the $672 billion of 2017, prompting many retail players to believe that the current slowdown is a short-term phenomenon.

    “Optimistic about the future growth prospects of retail, they maintain that the size of the Indian population, consumption and demand will drive organized retail growth in the future,” said Kejriwal.

    “However, it will take more than optimism to pull the retail sector out of its current tailspin. What the retail industry needs is strong demand dynamics, sizeable funding and consistent policy support from the government to get past the slowdown.”

  • Mumuso looking for rapid expansion in India

    Mumuso looking for rapid expansion in India

    Discount Chinese merchandise chain Mumuso is set to expand in India.

    The brand intends to launch outlets throughout the territory and is currently seeking potential franchise partners. It has already opened more than 30 locations in India at a rate of two per month since launching there.

    “Mumuso is eyeing at the Indian market aggressively,” said a statement released by the firm, “with new stores in different parts of the country”.

    Beyond its range of “Korean-inspired lifestyle products”, Mumuso is now looking at moving into the food-and-beverage sector.

    “I have been studying the retail market very closely,” said Mumuso India director Manoj Agarwal. “Indian retail market is huge. When it comes to lifestyle products, India has seen a sharp rise in the demand in the recent years. Our expansion strategy is to set up outlets all over India along with entering the e-commerce market as online shopping has seen a big boost in India in recent years. Mumuso, unlike distributorship, franchises will have more profit and direct access under B2C Format.”

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  • Bosch to Cut Thousands of Jobs in India as Auto Sales Slump

    Bosch to Cut Thousands of Jobs in India as Auto Sales Slump

    Bosch, the Indian unit of the world’s largest auto-parts supplier, plans to join its parent, Robert Bosch GmbH in cutting jobs as the South Asian nation witnesses one of its worst auto sales slowdowns in decades.

    The German company will cut “a couple of thousand” jobs in India in the next four years, India Managing Director Soumitra Bhattacharya said. About 10% of 3,700 white-collar jobs and a slightly higher percentage of 6,300 blue-collar jobs will be cut, he added in an interview in Bangalore on Dec. 30.

    “There is a transformation happening across the industry,” Bhattacharya said. “We looked at that as an opportunity to transform the company even before the downturn started.”

    Carmakers across the world will shed 80,000 jobs in the coming years amid shrinking demand. That will hit sales at autopart makers. In India, Bosch expects auto sales to only recover in the next two-three years after plummeting in 2019 because of regulatory changes, threat of electrification, a liquidity crunch, and an economic slowdown.

    Still, the German component maker sees the demand for internal combustion engine vehicles leading growth in the auto industry in India. Both ICE and electric powertrains will coexist for a long time, Bhattacharya said. He forecast that 80% of the vehicles will run on ICE the rest on electric by 2030 in the nation.

    Bosch India’s profit fell 66% in the quarter ended Sept. 30, from a year earlier. Its share price dropped 22% last year.

    India’s auto sector is going through a cyclical and structural changes because of electrification, technological shift and the advent of shared mobility, Bhattacharya said.

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  • India’s Lenskart wins US$275 million in Softbank funding

    India’s Lenskart wins US$275 million in Softbank funding

    Indian omni-channel eyewear retailer Lenskart has raised an investment of US$275 million from SoftBank Vision Fund.

    Several of the firm’s existing investors sold their stake in the business during the latest Series-G financing round. The new funding has lifted the firm’s total investments to date to $456 million, leaving Lenskart with a valuation of more than $1.5 billion.

    The firm currently sells via more than 500 outlets throughout more than 100 Indian cities. The firm started as an online-only business, with 60 per cent of current sales still taking place online.

    “We are thrilled to have SoftBank Vision Fund with us in our journey,” said Lenskart founder and CEO Peyush Bansal in an interview with TechCrunch. “Their understanding of consumer and technology will help us build the next edition of Lenskart.”

    The firm’s latest inflow of capital will be used to improve its IT infrastructure and supply chain.

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  • China Carmakers Getting Ready To Build More, Much More, In India

    China Carmakers Getting Ready To Build More, Much More, In India

    Chinese automakers Great Wall Motor and Changan Automobile are accelerating plans to build cars in India after the initial success of rival SAIC Motor in one of the world’s biggest markets, three sources said. Great Wall, one of the biggest sellers of sports-utility vehicles (SUV) in China, expects to secure a production site in the first half of 2020, likely a General Motors plant in Maharashtra, a source familiar with Great Wall’s plans said

    Buying a factory is seen as the best way to get up and running fast and Great Wall is finalising which SUVs it plans to make in India, including whether to kick off its launch with an electric SUV, the source told Reuters. Great Wall said it would make an announcement next month about its plans for India but declined further comment.A spokesman for GM in Detroit said it was continuing to make vehicles for export at its Talegaon plant in Maharashtra state.”As we have said previously, we continue to explore options to improve utilisation of the plant

    We do not comment on speculation,” he said.Changan, too, is scouting for a production base and has held initial talks with suppliers, sources aware of its plans said

    Both automakers, which produce electric vehicles (EVs) in China, are also considering whether to set up EV battery assembly plants in India, the sources said. Changan declined to comment.The companies see India as a chance to combat slowing sales at home, which fell in November for a 17th month in a row

    While car sales in India are stuttering, the market is expected to become the world’s third biggest by 2026, behind China and the United States, according to consultancy LMC AutomotiveThe Chinese firms also hope to capitalise on gaps left by global automakers such as Fiat Chrysler , Ford Motor and GM which have scaled back plans in a market still dominated by smaller, low-cost cars made by Maruti Suzuki and Hyundai Motor. “It is an opportune time for China’s automakers to enter India. There is currently a gap in competition and it may take a couple of years for some of the established carmakers to bring new products to the market,” said LMC Automotive’s Ammar Master.

    PERCEPTION GAPGM’s retreat from India, for example, could help Great Wall get going quickly and it has been in talks to buy GM’s plant in Maharashtra, two of the sources said. GM stopped selling cars in India in 2017 and has already sold its other plant in Gujarat to SAIC, where the state-owned Chinese automaker now makes the Hector SUV it launched in June under its MG Motor brand. India is part of Great Wall’s planned global expansion into South America, South Africa, Southeast Asia and Australia, and it also plans to export from their to places such as Europe and the United States, said the source who is aware of its plans.”The plant in India is expected to be the biggest for Great Wall outside of China,” the source said.Great Wall has hired a former executive from Maruti Suzuki, India’s biggest carmaker, for its product and business planning, and appointed a former executive from SAIC’s India division as a consultant to liaise with the government

    “For global automakers, India is one of the many markets they are in but for the Chinese it is the first major market outside of home and so the level of investment and commitment will be proportionately high,” said the source.One of the biggest hurdles in India will be fighting perceptions about the quality and reliability of Chinese products and winning over brand-conscious buyers for whom cars are a prestige statement, say analysts

    Chinese smartphone makers such as Xiaomi Corp faced similar perception issues when they launched in India but they now dominate the market

    However, cars remain a significant outlay for most Indians and the Chinese brands will need to make their mark quickly.”Once the likes of Volkswagen and Ford start launching new models in India, the entrants from China could face tougher competition because a lot of buyers in India are still very brand conscious,” said LMC’s Master

    Launched at the end of June it said it had sold more than 13,000 cars by the end of November and plans to sell 24,000 next year.”SAIC has changed the perception about whether a Chinese brand can be made and sold in India,” said Santosh Pai, partner at law firm Link Legal which advises Chinese companies setting up in India

    “Fence sitters are getting in and have realised they can sell in India if the price and strategy is right.”Lessons for Great Wall and Changan from SAIC’s India launch include marketing the brand aggressively, packing the car with features to differentiate it from rivals and giving extended warranties to dispel doubts over reliability, analysts say

    Another advantage for Chinese carmakers in the coming years will be their EV expertise

    With the sale of EVs slowing in China they can deploy some of their existing capacity to India where the government is encouraging clean fuel cars. SAIC, which will soon launch an electric SUV in India, is also scouting for a second manufacturing site and is expected to make a decision in early 2020, said a source aware of its plans. SAIC did not respond to a request for comment though the head of its Indian division said in November it was working on an expansion plan and expected its total sales in India to hit 70,000 in 2021.

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  • Cantabil plans 100 new outlets within a year

    Cantabil plans 100 new outlets within a year

    Indian clothing label Cantabil is making plans to extend its reach across the country by opening more than 100 new outlets within one year.

    The firm currently operates 290 outlets in 16 states within the territory, mostly in tier I and II cities. It plans to invest US$3.5 million to expand its number of locations to 400.

    “This year has been a positive one and we are hopeful to continue with the same growth momentum in the coming year,” said Cantabil director Deepak Bansal.

    “There is a significant increase in awareness about the fashion trend among the people in smaller towns and cities. We see immense potential in tier II and III markets for expansion.”

    “Our target states are Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, UP, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal and part of Northeast,” read a statement from the firm.

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