Tommy Hilfiger CEO cautions investments in retail sector

23 Feb '07

3 min read

The 8th Marketing & Retail Conclave (MRC) 2007 organized by Technopak Advisors, a leading consultant in apparel, retail, fashion, FMCG and healthcare, started in Delhi. The conclave, which has an emphasis on 'Global Consumer & Retail' began with a series of 21 interactive workshops on the first day with an focus on knowledge dissemination for industry professionals in the retail, consumer goods, and service industry from India and abroad.

In one of the parallel workshops during the day titled “Launching an International Brand in India” Mr. Sailesh Chaturvedi, CEO, Tommy Hilfiger Apparels India, cautioned the Indian retail sector suggesting that the Indian retail sector may be over-hyped. 'Indian consumers are not yet sophisticated in their understanding of deft brands. There is a premium blur in their minds”, he said. Further, the retail heat has also created unrealistically escalated real estate costs and employee costs which has in turn increased the cost of brand launches.

Absence of efficient retail operations systems, dearth of internationally trained retail professionals, high costs of infrastructure available compound the challenges faced by international brand launches, he added.

Emphasizing on the drivers to attract new international brands he stated the need for an environment conducive for knowledge sharing and cross training. “Investments in the retail sector should be made cautiously only after careful analysis and preparation to avoid high failure rates,” Chaturvedi averred.

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