'Retailers must get organized'

The Economic Times reports from the recently concluded India Retail Forum:

The Maharashtra Governor, SM Krishna spoke at the India Retail Forum (IRF) in Mumbai and asked the state-run bodies to change the face of retail in the country by becoming organized about the unorganized retail sector. He also said that leading retailers must not ignore the kirana stores.

“This unorganized retail segment provides a cushion against unemployment for millions of people. They have their own customer base and will continue to do so.”

Arvind Singhal, Chairman of KSA Technopak spoke about the size of the retail industry which at $300 billion is likely to grow by 40% to $427 billion by 2011. Organized retail in India consists only of 3% or $8 billion of the total retail pie, but is likely to grow to somewhere between $60-75 billion in the next five years.

The potential for growth in organized retail was highlighted by Krish Iyer, Managing Director (India) of AS Watson Group, who said that almost 95% of Indian consumers had not been to a mall for shopping. Kevin Moss, Vice President (Operations) of General Growth Properties (GGP) added

“The transformation that has taken place here is quite phenomenal. The evolution of retail India is much faster than that in the US.”