Tuesday, May 15, 2018

Biba Opens its Largest Flagship Store At Vijayawada

The leading Indian ethnic brand, achieved a retail milestone with the opening of its biggest ever store in Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh.

Spread across 5,800 sq. ft. of area, largest store of BIBA is a two-storied space that caters to the vast variety of products, including the classic suit sets, kurtas, MnM’s and a separate section of BIBA Girls and BIBA Jewellery.

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The aesthetically designed outlet reflects BIBA’s identity of being traditional but unique. The store is well lit and spacious, with separate sections of every collection for customer’s ease and offers a variety of Indian and contemporary designs in anarkalis, peshwai kurtas, skirts, tunics and kurta dresses. As the brand has expanded its offerings with the BIBA Girls and the launch of BIBA Jewellery – an exclusive line of accessories, the new store will have enough space to display the array of products available.

Commenting on this launch, Siddharath Bindra, Managing Director, BIBA said, This is BIBA’s largest store till date. With the launch of this store in Vijayawada we are moving towards our vision of providing not just the best in fashion but also the best retail experience to our customers. The store offers a wide range of Biba, Biba Girls and jewellery which allows our patrons to pick the best of fashion and get a complete look. We are looking forward to many more such stores in the future.


With the rapid expansion and different offering in an affordable price, BIBA has managed to establish its niche in retail segment all across the country. BIBA has always stood up to customers expectations and has successfully recognized the potential of smaller markets and that has really helped the brand in creating a huge fan base across the country.

Tuesday, April 24, 2018

House of Fraser owner to inject funding

The Chinese company behind House of Fraser will inject about £15m into the department store chain this week as part of a plan to allay concerns about the 169-year-old firm’s financial health.


The retailer, which employs 6,000, has been under the spotlight over fears it could become the next victim of torrid trading conditions for the UK retail sector that have already claimed well-known high street names such as Toys R Us and Maplin this year.

It is trying to slash the floorspace of its 59-strong store chain by 30% and reduce its rent bill after dismal Christmas trading figures, while its bank lenders have hired accountancy EY to review the firm’s finances. The chain has also held talks with Alteri – a turnaround firm that specialises in struggling retailers – fuelling speculation that is looking to refinance its £400m debts.

House of Fraser has since protested that it only agreed to a meeting at Alteri’s request and could not have sought fresh finance in any case, given the terms of its existing loans.

The picture has been further complicated by suggestions that China’s Sanpower, which owns 89% of the company, is seeking to offload the majority of its stake to fellow Chinese leisure firm Wuji Wenhua.

But the Guardian understands that Sanpower, which bought House of Fraser in 2014 in a deal worth £450m, will reaffirm its commitment to the business, starting with an expected £15m cash injection as soon as this week.

The Sanpower chairman, Yuan Yafei, reassured the trade minister, Liam Fox, that he wants to own House of Fraser for the long term, in a discussion last Friday at Hong Kong’s Great Festival of Innovation.

The entrepreneur, who started his business in 1993 with $2,000 (£1,415) and is now worth an estimated $12bn, is thought to have promised further investment, coupled with a wider overhaul and modernisation of the company and House of Fraser brand.

A spokesperson for Sanpower confirmed that Yafei will inject more money into House of Fraser via Nanjing Cenbest, Sanpower’s Shanghai-listed subsidiary.

We at Sanpower continue to support House of Fraser as it embarks on a year of significant transformation in 2018, he said. Sanpower, through the listed company, has invested £45m in House of Fraser and plans to inject further capital.

With the money on its way, the chief executive, Alex Williamson, wrote to House of Fraser’s suppliers on Monday to say that the company was continuing with business as usual.

The long-term puzzle for Sanpower is that business as usual is not exactly a high bar, at least not lately. After buying House of Fraser four years ago, Yafei laid out ambitious plans to create an international retailer with 50 Chinese stores.

Today it has just two Chinese outlets, while its main UK operation is feeling the pinch from flagging revenues and cripplingly high costs.

They’ve got too much space, inflexible leases, upward-only rent reviews and are also facing pressure from the national living wage, said Richard Lim, the chief executive of Retail Economics.

It’s all putting significant cost pressures on operating their stores, so operating costs are up 3% year on year, which outstrips the sales rise.

Tuesday, March 20, 2018

Faasos redials investors after losing as much as it earned last year

Pune-headquartered Faasos Food Services Pvt. Ltd, a quick service restaurant chain and online food delivery platform, will receive fresh funding of around Rs 33 crore ($5 million) from existing investors, two people familiar with the development told VCCircle.


The participating investors will include Lightbox Ventures, Sequoia Capital India, RuNet South Asia and RB Investments, said the above-mentioned persons who wished to remain anonymous.

The same investors had put in $6.3 million last April.

Jaydeep Barman, co-founder of Faasos, told VCCircle in a text message:This money, deal yet to be concluded, is part of a Series C tranche that was committed a year back when we raised Series C, based on meeting certain milestones. We have met those milestones.

In December 2015, Faasos had raised a Series C round of $30 million from Russian investment firm RuNet. Sequoia Capital had led a $8 million Series A funding round in the firm in 2011.

In February 2015, the firm had raised $20 million in a funding round led by Lightbox Ventures.

Barman said the fresh funds will primarily be used to set up more delivery (cloud) kitchens in the 15 cities where it currently operates. Faasos currently has 150 such kitchens and Barman said the company plans to add another 100 this year.


A former McKinsey and Co executive, Barman had founded Faasos in 2004 with Kallol Banerjee. Both Barman and Kallol are engineers with MBAs from Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Lucknow and France-headquartered business school INSEAD, respectively.

Financial performance

The firm had narrowed its losses by 35% to 82 crore in 2016-17 from Rs 111 crore the previous fiscal, show filings with the Registrar of Companies (RoC).

Net sales rose to Rs 82.28 crore in the last financial year, up from Rs 62 crore in 2015-16.

Faasos’ comparable rivals in the food delivery space have also been making losses while increasing sales.

FreshMenu more than doubled its net sales in 2016-17 to Rs 70.9 crore from Rs 31.7 crore in 2015-16. Net loss widened to Rs 42.3 crore from Rs 33.8 crore, as total expenses increased to Rs 117 crore from Rs 67 crore.

Another peer, Mumbai-headquartered Poncho Hospitality Pvt. Ltd which offers an on-demand food delivery service under the brand Box8, reported revenues of Rs 51 crore in 2016-17, a significant increase from Rs 28 crore in the previous fiscal. Losses narrowed to Rs 12.4 crore from Rs 15.1 crore in 2015-16.