Waiting for Orange Juice (Not From Concentrate) On Indian Retail Shelves

Ever since my R2I (Return to India for good, if you haven't heard this term before) last year, one thing I have missed is the sweet-tangy taste of Orange Juice. It was a staple drink in those years spent in the United States. The ad of Florida's Natural OJ which showed consumers literally pulling the juice cans straight from the groves was a big hit. In the Indian context though such a pull is not easy, with the severe lack of cold storage chains connecting the farms to the marts. You will find many variants of the 'from-concentrate' OJ which do not need any refrigeration, but those I avoid. Instead I have resorted to eating orange fruits whenever I find them, but then they are seasonal.

A good development of late in India has been the opening up of retail in a big way. Reliance, Bharti-Walmart, RPG, Birlas, Tatas, you name it every big corporate house is venturing bigtime. ET reports Retail will jump from $12B today to $200B by year 2016! In most developed nations, organised retail is the economy's backbone emlpoying more people than any other industry. This is about to pickup in India with these companies making $30B worth of investments in linking the farm to the mart, triggering a new socio-economic revolution.

And now the government has just announced incentives to companies in setting up cold chains with reduced import duties, interest-sops etc. That should reduce my wait for OJ (not from concentrate) considerably!

Walmart in India! Will it Succeed or Retreat?

Now Walmart is coming to India in a tie-up with Bharti, India's telecom major. It will be interesting to see how long they last (given their Germany, South Korea experiences) OR if they will be able to dominate the Indian retail market like they do in the US. Walmart statistics are always impressive (300b revenues, comparison with world GDPs, International trade figures etc).

India will be a tougher nut to crack as it is a much more diverse market than the ones where Walmart has apparently not succeeded. While huge scope for economies of efficiencies and supply chain improvements exist, same cannot be said for 'homegenising' the tastes of 1.2 billion people. Combining Walmart's worldclass backend with the knowledge of India's retail consumer which Bharti ostensibly has, will be the key to success. After all, Bharti has defined its core competency as marketing to the consumer, having outsourced the rest to third parties.