From the pages of Images Retail (June 2009)

Build a share
By Nupur Chakraborty

The final session (titled Partners in Progress), designed to argue out troublesome areas in the developer-retailer relationship, was argumentative, but largely non-confrontational, to the surprise of some. Surprise because, behind closed doors, each side has plenty of uncomplimentary things to say about the other.

This key session was anchored, appropriately, by neutral industry veterans – Anuj Puri, chairman & country head, Jones Lang Lasalle Meghraj, and Pranay Sinha, MD of Star Centres.

The retailer side was represented by B S Nagesh, customer care associate & MD, Shoppers Stop; Dilip Kapur, president, Hidesign; Sailesh Chaturvedi, CEO, Tommy Hilfiger (India); Yogesh Samat, CEO, Foresight Retail, Ashesh Amin, head, ColorPlus; and R A Shah, GM, Projects, Trent Ltd.

The developer community was represented by S Raghunandan, CEO-Retail, Prestige Group; Kishore Bhatija, CEO, Inorbit Malls; I S Narula, president & CEO, Ishanya; Ananta Raghuvanshi, CE-Retail, Emaar MGF Land Ltd; Yograj Arora, director, Select Citywalk; Rohit Malhotra, CEO, Realtech; and Ramesh Shah, advisor, Ambience Group.

Strategies for Generation Next of retail spaces
The inaugural session at the second India Shopping Centre Forum, was addressed by Harshavardhan Neotia, Chairman, Ambuja Realty, Arjun Sharma, Director, Select CityWalk and Bijou Kurien, President & CE - Lifestyle Vertical, Reliance Retail. It was presided over by Anuj Puri, Chairman and Country Head, Jones Lang Lasalle Meghraj

Referring to the current absence of differentiation in India’s shopping centre business, Bijou Kurien, president & CE- Lifestyle Vertical, Reliance Retail, said, “The initial euphoria of ‘get rich quick’ is what has led to blurring of differentiations. There is an increasing need to learn from successful high street stores and local clusters like Greater Kailash or South Extension and Khan Market in Delhi, and not by emulating, but by learning and removing the inconveniences of shopping on the high street.”

Pranay Sinha, managing director of Star Centres and formerly the head of the very successful select CityWalk mall in Delhi, added, “There is an increasing need for maturity in the retail industry and stress on the need for relevance, convenience and better formatting in overall planning of malls.”



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