Foreign support firms ride on Indian retail saga Global paraphernalia providers eye the Indian retail pie, says Peeyush Agnihotri

That foreign construction giants sniff an opportunity in the Indian realty sector and are landing here in droves doesn’t make news. What has been an interesting development, of late, is that big-time global retail design, paraphernalia and know-how providers are looking to lend the very-crucial skeletal support system to the Indian retail saga.

The size of the Indian retail industry is colossal. It is pegged at Rs 12 lakh crore (Rs 66,000 crore unorganised outlets inclusive) nearly and is expected to triple over the next couple of years. The sector is expected to generate four and half million jobs.

No wonder, overseas know-how providers see an ocean of opportunity. For one, the market is now saturated for them in most of the developed countries and secondly, India now has the money but doesn’t know how to use it in a cost-effective manner in over 500 million feet of space that the retail sector may utilise in near future.

The Indian juggernaut has just started rolling and global players want to ride on it. Well! So you have architecture service providers, designers, footfall counter machine makers, amusement park equipment sellers, back-end software support system givers and even e-retail catalog designers. All those from abroad who can lend a competitive edge to the retail giants.

“Investors in India are looking at newer ideas to stand out. They are looking at architectural marvels and also international concepts. Mall builders are looking at vertical designs and we are getting a lot of queries from India,” says Angela Kreutz from Blocher Blocher Partners. This German firm specialises in architecture and interior design for malls and multiplexes. The company has developed stores in Delhi and Ahmedabad and quite a few are in stages of approval at various places in India. Angela says that they started looking at India nearly a-year-and-a half ago and response is picking up.

Not only multiplex. Amusement park concept is also being lapped up by Indian developers. Shuhaib Abdul Rahman from Amusement Services International LLC, a Dubai-based firm, says that trends have undergone a phenomenal change within three-years flat. “The concept is no more of a joint venture now. Indian realtors and retailers can do it all alone. They now have the capacity for capital investment. This implies that India now has the money to build as well as spend (on theme and amusement parks). This was unthinkable till not long ago but now amusement park know-how providers like us are coming all the way from Dubai and are finding takers,” says Rahman.

India has made the world sit up and take notice. Take the case of Nisyst, a Bolton (UK)-based firm famous for providing software solution for retail system development. They have opened a full-fledged office in Mumbai seeing country’s buoyant growth graph. “This is the right time to invest. Though I won’t say that Europe is not developing still but size of India is much much more. When we came here we came with an open mind. Now seeing the response we have decided to stay and be a part of the game. And are we getting a positive response from some hardware distributors,” divulges Bob S. Chunilal.

Similarly architecture and design firm Lewis and Hickey (L&H), a London based organisation, thinks that the time is right to bring “UK designs to India” as now there are many takers. The firm has worked extensively in the UK, Europe and west Asia and now eyes the Indian retail pie. “Response in India has been good and we have got some interesting leads,” says Dipak Kotecha. He says the growth is steady in housing, healthcare, hotels and tourism.

Firms like Manchester-based Photolink Creative have gone a step ahead. David Walter avers that with the coming in of malls and retail outlets, there would grow the need of home shopping as well since the distance between a big retail outlet and a customer may be an impediment. “So we have got down to compilation of home shopping catalogues. “I know it is like jumping the gun today but e-retailing will soon be a reality. Hyper-market e-retailing is a big thing in the UK these days. Mark my words. It will be in India with next two years or so,” Walter prophises. He is designing home shopping catalogs for big-time Indian retail firms and is hopeful of finding customers. “Things are moving in India at a phenomenal pace and so is its middle-class. So will the bandwidth and e-retailing,” he says.

Then there are footfall imaging contour providers like Northam-pton based Irisys. The firm develops and manufactures a range of detection products for people counting and monitoring for application in retail. It is keen on lending a technical know how to malls in India.

The list is long. So what if regulatory approvals take a lot of time to come about in India? Hardly matters, if there are differences between the state and central government on retail issues. No big deal if the country has the worst infrastructure. Foreign players are willing to take their chances. As we said the Indian retail juggernaut has just started to move for them.