NILGIRIS
About Retailing
Retailing requires all the activities in selling goods or services directly to final consumers for personal, non business use. A retailer or retail store is any business enterprise whose sales volume comes primarily from retailing. Any organisation selling to final consumers ± whether it is a manufacturer, wholesaler, or retailer- is doing retailing. It doesn¶t matter how the goods or services are sold or where. The term "retailer" is also applied where a service provider services the needs of a large number of individuals, such as a public public utility, like electric power. Online retailing, a type of electronic commerce used for business-toconsumer (B2C) transactions and mail order, are forms of non-shop retailing.
Nilgiris
Nilgiris is the oldest and leaders in the series of supermarkets, since its inc eption. he chain of hypermarket was established in 1905 for the promotion of the products, the company deals with and gave ³Nilgiris 1905´ name to the brand. Nilgiris, located in the South part of India is well-known to the locals for its high-quality services and products. "Quality products at competitive rates all under one roof" was what that drove Mr. Chenniappan. He also reinforced what already existed ² a very clear code of conduct, which guides the entire family when they come together to run Nilgiris, India's first supermarket with self-service facilities.
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PRODUCT o o o
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PRICE o o
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Dairy Bakery Staples
Competitive in the Industry Quality pricing
PLACE o o
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South India More than 90 stores
PROMOTION o o
o
Well
knit website Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter Print media
They have also evolved a very effective procurement policy. They get their own dairy, confectionary and bakery products.Their instant food comes from Bangalore, spices from their Erode base. Brandedproducts come to them directly while the grocery is procured locally, checked, cleaned, and repacked at the store. Customers demand and the movement of the products determine their inventory. Nilgiris stands out for the ability t o sign on their workers to a level of commitment, quality and involvement, almost as good as theirs. The way they manage their human resource definitely has something to it. During recruitment they don't look for previous experience or paper qualification. The guiding principle at work is discipline at every level. Strict adherence to timing. No socialising at work. Once an extremely well known name over South India from the year it started in 1905 it has been forced to undergo several cosmetic changes to retain its place and its customers. What was once a small store on Brigade Road, Bangalore, for instance has been forced to expand and stock a varied range of commodities to attract a larger range of customers from abroad and India. It started out as a smallish store with a Joy ice-cream stall and a fruit stall outside till the pavement clearance drive of the BMTF ensured closure of the ic e-cream stall and reduction in size of the fruit stall which had started to encroach on the pavement. There was also a coin operat ed weighing machine outside for customers and others to take their own weight if so desired. The inside which was rather small had a dairy counter before one entered the main part where the various goodies were stocked neatly on shelves. Vegetables had not yet reached the shelves of Nilgiris yet. Now after expansion the store even stocks cosmetic products, C D-ROMS, fresh vegetables, chilled and frozen meat and fish products, soft drinks where the cold storage room used to exist, plastic products in a new expansion of the building into its old storage space. The cakes section has been shifted to the basement which was once completely for the generator, but now caters to a restaurant also. Every supermarket has its drawbacks and Nilgiris too does possess a few drawbacks.Lack of spac e forces customers to jostle between each other and between the shelves while nimbly dodging a trolley pushed at high speed by another customer in the race to get to the billing counter first where long queues are the norm in peak hours and festive times.
UKgroup¶s stake in Nilgiris
In 2006 Actis a UK based private equity investor invested 65 million US dollars in the Nilgiris Group in order to strengthen their franchising and the manufacturing operations.Now Actis has 51% stake in Nilgiris Group. Nilgiris, which turned 100 in 2005, is a big supermarket chain known for its quality dairy, bakery and confectionary products and for meeting the daily needs of customers with a range of products.They went on to pioneer the supermarket concept in India and was t he first to introduce bar coding for food retailing in the whole of India.
Promotion
and Advertising
Above shown is the well knit website of Nilgiris. It has very user-friendly interface. One can easily locate nearest Nilgiris Store, browse through the history of Nilgiris, get to know about the wide range of products available. They also do internet marketing via social networking websites like Facebook and Twitter. Good quality consistent content spread around the web pointing to Nilgiris is all it takes to build a massive traffic network. It helps in increasing the brand visibility and awareness and thereby results in increase in sales.
Under the vertical integration project, the company has developed farms to specifically grow fresh fruits and vegetables. T KHVHIDUPVDUHDQLQWHJUDWHGSDUWRIWKHVXSSO\FKDLQORFDWHG LQWKH VRXWKHUQSDUWRI ,QGLD1LOJLULVLVDOVR IDPRXVIRU UHWDLOLQJGDLU\SURGXFWVSURGXFHG XQGHU LWVRZQEUDQG Nilgiris is possibly the only retailer to generate a large part of its sales from its
own produce.Nilgiris revolutionized the retail scenario by setting up a milk bar, an ice cream parlour, and grocery, general mercha ndise as part of the store in addition to pre-existing bakery and confectionary units. A unique supermarket was set up which makes and sells its own products in addition to others. Key issues to be addressed by Nilgiris are the improper distribution channels and insufficient supply. Because of the same most of the outlets face the problem of out of stock which leads to customer dissatisfaction.
SWOT Analysis Strengths: o o o o
Regional advantage. Legacy of being in the market for past more than 100 years. Brand name and trust among customer base. Wide presence in the market.
W eakness: o o
Inefficient supply chain. Unable to fulfil increasing demand in the market.
Opportunities: o o
Try and move towards northern part of India. Focus more on Rural Market.
T hreats: o o
Increasing number of local retail outlets coming up. Lot of international retail stores coming up with every day low price strategies.
CONCLUSION: With
the above given facts I would like to conclude by saying that, though being one of the oldest and successful retail outlet in the country, they have not been able to capitalise on the available opportunities. There are lot of opportunities to be explored and I think Nilgiris should focus on these opportunities and work upon over-coming its weaknesses. They should think about expanding their area of operation.
