Group B6 Source Mint

Business reading report Group No 6

Group Name : Eagle

Tagline : Highflier with a clear, magnified vision

Group Logo :

                       

Period 2/12/12-18/12/12

 

Britannia’s Vinita Bali

Q&A: on slowing growth

December 18       by Suhasini Seshan

  Britannia Industries Ltd, the maker of Tiger and Good Day biscuits, was a 100% biscuits company five years ago. Over the last five years, the company has also focused on health and wellness with brands like NutriChoice and even fortified some of its bands. Vinita Bali, managing director and chief executive officer of the company says, We are not a samosa company trying to sell salad. We are a biscuit company trying to sell healthier biscuits; a bread company trying to sell healthier bread.

    We just launched the range (100% wheat bread, multi-grain bread, bread with oats and honey) six months ago all are doing well. The trends that we are seeing are very encouraging. So, consumers are buying healthy products at a premium. When you buy loose food like samosa, chana batura or bhujia, is there anyone telling you how much oil and calories you are consuming? Let’s not bash packaged food. In India, only 9% of food is branded and packaged. Look at water 20 years ago, people would not agree to pay for water. Today everyone is walking around with a packaged bottle of water. Five years ago, people did not buy packaged dahi (yoghurt).

   There is so much opportunity available in India with 91% (of food products sold) unbranded. Competition is good. Markets explode and expand when there is competition. Look at aviation; look at cars. Does a slowing economy affect you? The market is growing but the rate of growth is coming down. India as a market will continue to grow as there are new consumers who come into the consumption cycle. There is a plethora of opportunities here.

P&G's reaffirmed India focus

Published  3 december  by Asghar Zaidi

P&G Hygiene's shares have outperformed Gillette's, though Gillette has made a minor comeback since mid-November. Both subsidiaries are a key part of P&G's effort to increase contribution from emerging markets such as India. In a recent global investor meeting, P&G affirmed that a strong momentum in developing markets continues to be a key part of its strategy.

Marico to launch Kaya Skin Bar chain

Published : 4 december      By Asghar Zaidi

A decade after it launched Kaya, a beauty and wellness chain, Marico Ltd plans to launch a smaller beauty services chain under the brand Kaya Skin Bar to help it become profitable even as analysts remain sceptical about consumer packaged goods companies tasting success in retail.

Kaya Skin Bar will be first launched in Hyderabad in January and the company expects to have five stores by the end of its first year of operations, according to Ajay Pahwa, chief executive officer of Kaya Ltd. "Over 5-7 years, we hope to ramp it up to 150-200 stores," he added.

Samsung is top 2012 phone brand, ousting Nokia

11^th December 2012, MINT newspaper        by Parchi trehan 112

 

 “The competitive reality of the cell phone market in 2012 was ‘live by the smart phone; die by the smart phone,´” said Wayne Lam, senior analyst at IHS.

Samsung has overtaken Nokia as the top mobile phone brand for 2012 and has opened up a decisive lead over Apple in the smart phone market, a research firm said Tuesday.

IHS noted that Samsung produces dozens of smart phone models every year that address all segments of the market, from the high-end to the low-end. Nokia is transitioning its smart phone line to the Windows operating system, resulting in declining shipments for the company.

Sales of Nokia’s older Symbian-based phones have plunged, while its new Microsoft Windows-based handsets have been modest so far.

This will mark the first time in 14 years that Finnish-based Nokia will not sit atop the global mobile phone business. Samsung is expected to account for 29% of worldwide cell phone shipments, up from 24% in 2011, according to the IHS, which said Nokia’s share dropped to 24% from 30%. This will mark the first time the South Korean electronics giant will occupy the top on a yearly basis, IHS said.

IHS said global smart phone shipments are set to rise by 35.5% this year, while overall cell phone shipments will increase by just 1%. This will propel 2012 smart phone penetration to 47%, up from 35% in 2011.

IHS said it expects smart phones gains to accelerate in 2013, and to account for 56% of the mobile phone market.

E-commerce firms face survival test

Published: Dec 11 2012     by Gigitha Vadakoot

Nearly half of all the e-commerce firms launched this year until October have shut as investors tighten purse strings, leaving fledgling ventures starved for cash and forcing their exit. Entrepreneurial instincts have been tucked away as well, with most founders opting to work with large, stable employers, rather than start another online company. Some of the main reasons for the shutdown of e commerce are  consolidation forced by investors among their portfolio companies, sites have dead inventories and the 20-30% discounts are not helping them cover their costs, insufficient bank balance to sustain and compete with big companies, getting customers to pay for services in time. Today, they want to know about very basic business fundamentals while evaluating e-commerce—the revenue and reach ambitions. Due to rising mortality of e commerce, the running of many new startup companies also gets affected.

Two-wheeler sales skid in festive season

Published : 5 December       by Abhishek Shetty

   Two-wheeler sales have fallen by 2.4% year-on-year in the festive period. As inventory started getting built up since September 2011, the y-o-y comparison is for the period from September till November.Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (Pvt.) Ltd outperformed by a long shot, with sales growing by 29%, while each of the other three leading two-wheeler companies reported a decline

HBO Asia and Eros launch two ad-free pay channels in India

Published : 6 December       by Abhishek Shetty

  HBO Asia and Eros launch two ad-free pay channels in India. Aminah Sheikh Bollywood movie producer Eros International Media Ltd and Hollywood movie broadcaster HBO Asia have launched two premium movies channels-HBO Define and HBO Hits-for pay television audiences in India.

  The channels will not carry advertising and will be available only through digital TV platforms, together priced at around Rs.100 a month, the companies said at a press conference on Thursday.

India will be 4th largest aviation market by 2016: IATA

Published : 7 december     by Jay gandhi

India will become the fourth largest passenger airline market in the world by 2016, behind only the US, China and Brazil, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said in its air traffic forecast report released on Thursday."Airlines expect to welcome some 3.6 billion passengers in 2016. That's about 800 million more than the 2.8 billion passengers carried by airlines in 2011," IATA said. "The emerging economies of Asia-Pacific, Latin America and the Middle East will see the strongest passenger growth."

McDonald's franchise holder merges

Published : 8 december     by Jay gandhi

Hardcastle Restaurants Pvt Ltd (HRPL), the McDonald's restaurant chain's master franchise for south and west India, Friday announced a consolidation of its business to become a part of the publicly listed family business company Westlife Development Ltd, in a filing with BSE. The consolidation will help the BL Jatia group company take advantage of high growth in the quick service restaurant industry, said a company official.

"The board made the decision to go ahead with the merger today," said Amit Jatia, vice chairman of Hardcastle Restaurants. The merger process will take six to nine month, he added.