Amway plans Rs 400 cr investment in India by 2014

Amway India, the Indian arm of Amway Corporation, will invest Rs 400 crore in India in the next two years on a manufacturing facility and for its headquarters in Delhi.

"We are planning to come up with a greenfield manufacturing facility in the country at an estimated investment of about Rs 300 crore. Another Rs 100 crore would be invested for our upcoming headquarters in Delhi. The new unit will be commissioned by 2014. However, we have not zeroed in on the location," said William S Pinckney, managing director and chief executive officer of Amway India.

In 2011, the firm has posted a 19 per cent rise in turnover to Rs 2,130 crore, as against Rs 1,790 crore last year. "Amway's turnover is expected to touch Rs 2500-crore mark this year. We are the seventh largest market in the world as far as Amway's global operations are concerned. This year we may become the sixth largest market for Amway," Pinckney said.

The firm is also focussing on the beauty segment. Currently, health and wellness contribute above 55 per cent of the firm's turnover, while beauty products contribute about 10 per cent.

"We are focusing on this sector. Last year only, it has grown above 40 per cent," he added.

Meanwhile, he said that Amway's e-commerce portal has grown considerably since it was launched four years ago.

"India and China are only places where we are not involved in e-commerce platform aggressively. Now, it customers are showing more interest on e-commerce platform. Monthly we are seeing sales worth Rs 25 crore in the platform," he said.

Biyani's crack team to decide on group future

Kishore Biyani's Future Group, which owns the flagship Pantaloon Retail, India's largest organised retailer, has been saddled with rising debt and interest costs, and slow growth in sales leading the company to go into the red in the December quarter.

Last Friday, the rajah of retail in India, Kishore Biyani, handpicked two of his generals, Shailesh Haribhakti and Rakesh Biyani, to assist him in creating a turnaround blueprint for his massive retail operations. Over the next 12-18 months, this review committee will strategise and find ways to realign group operations and explore several value-creation opportunities through stake sales, JVs and in some cases exits from non-core businesses. And, despite the current regulatory ambiguity over foreign investment in multi-brand retail, this apex group will continue to spearhead the ongoing dialogue with foreign giants like Walmart and France's Carrefour for future tie-ups.

Such initiatives will aim at reducing Pantaloon Retail's debt by around Rs 2,500 crore and is also likely to see a much-needed equity infusion of at least Rs 1,500-2,000 crore, sources say.

Kishore Biyani's Future Group, which owns the flagship Pantaloon Retail, India's largest organised retailer, has been saddled with rising debt and interest costs, and slow growth in sales leading the company to go into the red in the December quarter. According to the last available data of June 2011, the debt from its retail operations stood at Rs 4,200 crore and on a consolidated basis - which includes Future Capital - stood at Rs 7,846 crore.

Haribhakti, Chairman and Non-Executive Independent Director of Pantaloon, is a renowned chartered accountant and a specialist in financial and corporate restructuring. He is also on the board of several Indian conglomerates. Rakesh Biyani, Kishore's cousin, is the Joint MD of Pantaloon and Director, Retail, for the entire Future Group.

He is also a member of the Biyani Family Business Board, which oversees the promoter family's business interests and has played a key role to scale up the value retail formats of Big Bazaar and Food Bazaar, which contribute a lion's share of revenues.

TMI survey: LG grabs consumer's attention

One third of the phones that made it to The Mobile Indian's list of Top 25 handsets have dual SIM capabilities.

'The Handset Hotlist' survey in February 2012 saw LG Mobiles making its entry into the list for the first time in the last 11 months as one of LG's smartphones made it to the Top 25.

The year 2012 seems to have started on a good note for South Korea's LG Electronics, the world's No. 2 TV maker. The company's handset division has registered profit globally in the fourth quarter of 2011, as its latest smartphones helped its ailing handset unit post a small profit after six straight quarters of losses.

The Handset Hotlist is brought out by The Mobile Indian (www.themobileindian.com) every month. It is based on a survey of online preferences of about one million visitors who came to the site in January, 2012 and searched for and viewed information about mobiles on the site's Handset section, which lists more than 1,700 models.

Sreekant Khandekar, director, The Mobile Indian, says, "Apart from LG's entry this month, we have seen renewed interest in dual SIM phones and it is spearheaded by Nokia. Five out of nine dual SIM phones featured in the Handset Hotlist are from Nokia. Though Nokia was late to enter this segment, it seems to have finally found momentum."

Khandekar adds, "Another interesting trend seen in the hotlist is that 15 out of the 25 handsets in the list have 3G capabilities, and eight out of them run on Android."

According to The Handset Hotlist for February 2012, 11 of the 25 most sought-after mobile handset models are from Nokia. Samsung follows with eight; Sony Ericsson and Micromax have two each; while LG and Spice have one model each.

Nokia C5-03, a Symbian operating system-based handset, was the most searched mobile phone on The Mobile Indian, followed by Samsung's Galaxy Y S5360.

LG Optimus Net, which bagged the fifth place, is the dual SIM version of the Optimus Net and runs on Android v2.3 Gingerbread operating system, with an 800 MHz processor. The phone comes with 512 MB of RAM.

Apart from the LG Optimus Net, six other phones made it to this month's Hotlist for the first time. This includes Micromax Superfone A75, Samsung Wave M S7250, Samsung Wave Y S5380, Nokia X2 02, Nokia Lumia 710 and Spice Mobiles Mi 280.

Thought of the Day

The pleasantest things in the world are pleasant thoughts: and the great art of life is to have as many of them as possible.                                                           

                                                                  Montaigne

CSR By Colgate-Palmolive

Colgate Bright smile Bright Future

The Colgate Bright Smiles, Bright Futures oral health educational programme worldwide was developed to teach children positive oral health habits of basic hygiene, diet and physical activity. This programme also encourages dental professionals, public health officials, civic leaders and, most importantly, parents and educators to come together to emphasis the importance of oral health as part of a child's overall physical and emotional development.

Under this programme, conducted by Colgate-Palmolive, India, children in primary schools receive instructions in dental care from members of the dental profession nominated by the Indian Dental Association. Education is imparted with the aid of audio-visuals and printed literature created by the company. Free dental health care packs, including samples, are also distributed by the company to encourage good oral hygiene.

The Teachers Training Programme is an integral part of the School Dental Health Programme, conducted regularly across the country to promote preventive dental health care. Colgate also launched its first-ever online school curriculum featuring fun and entertaining activities. 

Teachers Training Program

Training in the basics of oral health care is imparted to school teachers. This helps them play a significant role in preventive oral care by inculcating good oral care habits in the students. The Teachers Training Program forms a vital part of the Colgate Bright Smiles, Bright Futures Program. Till date, 2,43,500 teachers have been trained under the program.

E-business

CONCEPTS AND DEFINITIONS

What is e-commerce?

Electronic commerce or e-commerce refers to a wide range of online business activities

for products and services.

1. It also pertains to “any form of business transaction in which the parties interact electronically rather than by physical exchanges or direct physical contact.”

2. E-commerce is usually associated with buying and selling over the Internet, or conducting any transaction involving the transfer of ownership or rights to use goods or services through a computer-mediated network.

3. Though , this definition is not comprehensive enough to capture recent developments in this new and revolutionary business phenomenon. A more complete definition is:

“E-commerce is the use of electronic communications and digital information processing technology in business transactions to create, transform, and redefine relationships for value creation between or among organizations, and between organizations and individuals.”

4. International Data Corp (IDC) estimates the value of global e-commerce in 2000 at US$350.38 billion. This is projected to climb to as high as US$3.14 trillion by 2004. IDC also predicts an increase in Asia’s percentage share in worldwide e-commerce revenue from 5% in 2000 to 10% in 2004  Asia-Pacific e-commerce revenues are projected to increase from $76.8 billion at year-end of 2001 to $338.5 billion by the end of 2004.

Thought of the Day

“A smile is the light
in the window of your face
that tells people you’re at home.”

SUCCESS STORY

Recruitment Management for Common Wealth Games 2010

Client Situation The Commonwealth Games in 2010 is poised to be the largest multi-sport event ever to be held in India. The games will not only encourage sports in India, but they will also leave a legacy of new and upgraded sport facilities. The Organizing committee of Commonwealth games (CWG) had to recruit about 1,000 professionals from very diverse skill sets across functional areas like accommodation, doping control, hospitality etc. for organizing the games. PeopleStrong Solution PeopleStrong through its Recruitment vertical - Helped in defining CTQ parameters associated to the JDs Deployed technology to give a single window to all the stakeholders Recruiters mapped the market and arranged interactions in accordance to the requirements

BUSINESS QUIZ

1. Name the legendary footballer who said “Beauty comes first. Victory is secondary. What matters is joy”. ?

2. Which ad agency did ad veteran Bal Mundkur who passed away yesterday found?

3. What are the two new ways of raising money by company promoters approved by SEBI recently?

4. If Ericsson is the technology leader in mobile phone networks who is considered the cost leader?

5. Name this Indian start up led by Naveen Tiwari that is emerging as a strong competitor to Google in mobile advertising.