NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF FASHION TECHNOLOGY,

KOLKATA

ASSIGNMENT I

SUBJECT
FASHION RETAIL MANAGEMENT
NAME OF THE ASSIGNMENT
Study a retail store with respect to its corporate history, organizational structure,
annual reports, target customers, store locations, store formats and product line.

TOPIC OF THE ASSIGNMENT

STUDY A RETAIL STORE- WESTSIDE

SUBMITTED BY:

Shreshtha Soni
Roll no: 10

Sakshi Prerna
Roll no: 13

Priyanka Suman
Roll no: 16

Noopur Singh
Roll no: 17

Dinesh Das
Roll no: 26

The Tata group was founded by Jamshedji Tata in 1868 and now is the
largest private corporate group in India, in terms of market capitalization and
revenues.

The total revenue of the Tata group, taken together, in 2009-10 was estimated
at $67.4 billion (around Rs319, 534 crore).

The group has operations in more than 80 countries in various fields

including: Communication and information technology, engineering material,
services, energy, consumer products and chemicals.

Tata in the retail sector

The tata group operates some of Indias largest and fastest growing retail
chains.

Tatas retail chains are run by its subsidiaries like Trent Ltd, Infiniti Retail and
Titan.

The retail chains include: Croma, Landmark, Casa Dcor, Star Bazar,
Westside, Tanishq and the latest addition to this list is Taashi.

These chains provide products ranging from electronic items, fresh food, and
jewelry to clothing and accessories.

CORPORATE HISTORY

This story began circa 1998 when the Tatas acquired little woods a London
based retail chain.

This acquisition was followed by the establishment of

Trent ltd (A Tata enterprise that presently operates Westside). Littlewoods

was subsequently renamed as Westside

In a rapidly evolving retail scenario, Westside has carved a niche for its brand
of merchandise creating a loyal following. Currently, the company has 69
Westside stores measuring 15,000-30,000 square feet each across 28 cities.

With a variety of designs and styles, everything at Westside is exclusively

designed and the merchandise ranges from stylized clothes, footwear and
accessories for men, women and children to well-co-coordinated table linens,
artefacts, home accessories and furnishings. Well-designed interiors,
sprawling space, prime locations and coffee shops enhance the customers
shopping experience.

Turnover year ended 31.03.2011 was 4303.71 lakhs.

Westside was awarded the 'The Most Admired Private Label Fashion Retailer
of the Year at the Images Fashion Awards 2010, organized by the IMAGES
Group.

Westside has 90 per cent of its merchandise as private label brands and
witnessed a growth of nearly 28 per cent in the retail space, despite the
downturn.

Westside is ahead in profitability because 85% of its merchandise is in-house

brands.

Westside is mostly popular because of a wide range of products which include

Menswear, Womens wear, Kids wear, Footwear, Cosmetics, Perfumes and
Handbags, Household Accessories, lingerie, and Gifts.

It is also going to house an extensive designer prt collection by the countrys

leading designers Wendell Rodricks, Narendra Kumar, Priyadarshini Rao,
Manish Gupta and Vivek Kumar.

Italian kids wear brand Chicco will introduce parents to the safe and tested
world of baby products.

Between financial year ended 2008 and 2009-10, Trents stand-alone (largely
Westside) revenue grew 8.6% to Rs 542.60 crore against Shoppers Stops
30% growth to Rs 1, 478 crore.

Westside has garnered numerous accolades

Balanced Scorecard Hall of Fame

India Brand Summit Brand Leadership Retail

IFA Visionary of the Year Award, 2002 Mrs. Simone N. Tata

Most Admired Large Format Retail Chain of the Year - Lycra

Images Fashion Awards 2005

NDTV Profit Business Leadership Awards 2006 - Retail Category

ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE OF WESTSIDE

Store Manager

Assistant Store
Manager

Department Manager

Training and
Development manager

Sales Officer

Sales Assistant

The basic organizational structure of the organization is

The function of store manager is to look after the functions of all the stores of
Westside in that particular area/city. He is responsible for all the sales and
sales related activities for all stores in city.

The function of assistant store manager (ASM) to look after the function of a
single store. Hence, there are individual ASMs for individual stores. He is
responsible for collecting daily report from the DMs and reporting to the SM.
He is also responsible for the staff welfare of the store.

Each store has been divided into two departments one for apparel and other
for the cosmetics. Hence, there are two DMs in every store. The DM is
responsible for the daily sales and customer relation activities in store.

There are two training and development managers (TDM) in each store. They
are responsible for training of the sales assistants (SA).

Sales officers are the senior sales assistants. The not only involved in sales
activities but also helps the SAs in selling activities.

Sales assistants are the persons who are in direct contact of the customers.
They are responsible for the customer satisfaction.

EMPLOYEE BEHAVIOUR

Employees are specially trained for helping out their customers in reducing
dissonance.

Each SA gives personal attention to the customer in selection and buying of

their product, thereby building a good customer relationship.

The employees also learn how to work in a team to perform, during their
commencement of work as everybody has been assigned their job by the DM.

They are trained to control their emotion even if they have to deal with
customers who are very choosy and sometimes ridicule the collections
available at store.

ANNUAL REPORT
The Westside stores, the predominantly private label fashion apparel format,
continue to be the mainstay of the retailing business of the Company. This format
over the years has been rolled out across the country and currently covers over 38
cities. In the year under review, thirteen stores were opened including the following Bhopal (DB City Mall), Pune (Phoenix Market City), Mumbai (Infinity Mall), Varanasi
(Dhanushree Complex), New Delhi (Moments Mall), Mumbai (R-City Mall), Bilaspur
(City Mall), Udaipur (Rkay Mall) and Bangalore (Orion Mall).
In the first quarter of the current financial year two further stores have been opened
in Jalandar (Model Town) and Vizag (R K Estate) taking the total number of
operational Westside stores to 69.
During FY11-12, as can be observed from the above chart the Company recorded
thirteen new store openings - being the highest in any year since the inception of this
format. However, from an operating perspective, the period under review was difficult
for the Westside format.

Significant costs pressures, including on account of the 10% excise duty

imposed on branded apparel; this compelled price increases in the region of
15% to 20%;

Customer off-take declined in volume terms especially in the first half and
sales were skewed significantly to discounted end of season sale periods;
this play-out implied lower realized gross margins;

Inventory build up was on the higher side vis--vis target levels given that
same-store-sale growth was significantly below budgeted levels; essentially,
slowing demand and customer resistance to accept new price points resulted
in higher inventory days;

Some of the stores opened (especially those in larger malls) in the FY11 and
during the period under review witnessed slower ramp up in sales and on the
other hand involved higher operating costs including on account of common
area maintenance cost charge-outs.

The conviction of the Board and the management on the attractiveness of the
Westside format as a business model was one of the primary reasons to
continue significant expansion of the chain during this period. Further, during
the year under review, key steps were initiated to refresh the product offering
and also the look and feel of the stores. The initial response from customers
in these respects has been encouraging.

Westside is ranked to be in the top quartile in terms contribution of private label

merchandize to overall revenues. It allows for a better competitive position over the
medium term. At the same time, the intent is to make the offering complete and
collectively more attractive through the inclusion of select brands that account for up
to 15% of the overall merchandize range on offer.

Further, during the period under review, we have continued to emphasize improving
the efficiency of our supply chain to effectively replenish our store network and
significantly improve merchandize availability levels in stores. While we seek to
exercise restraint on costs, we consciously continue to invest in areas like
significantly refurbishing the look and feel of certain stores in the portfolio and have
concluded implementation of a warehouse management system. We believe
incurring of these additional costs on the above initiatives is warranted especially
from a long term business model sustainability perspective, and we expect to realize
tangible benefits over the medium term. From a cost perspective, in the period under
review, there have been pressures across line items including:

Sharply higher merchandize input costs given the rally in commodity prices in
the second half of FY10-11.

increase in wage bill (with minimum wage levels witnessing sharp increase in
several States); also fuelled by improved hiring sentiment across industries at
the entry level

higher energy costs in States like Maharashtra and escalating Common Area
Maintenance charges in select malls

Increase in tax costs (service tax on rentals, higher VAT in most States and
the 10% excise on branded garments).

These pronounced cost pressures across several line items and the significant
inflation levels in various categories in the recent quarters continues to be a cause
for concern. However, moderation in input prices for apparel in recent quarters is
providing some relief.

In summary, despite various challenges, including the current difficult economic

backdrop and the cost pressures, Westside as a format continues to be sustainable
and as stated previously, the intent is to further scale up presence by opening as
many new stores in the near to medium term, subject to availability of acceptable
retail locations and estimated viability of economics at the store level.

TARGET CUSTOMERS
Westside has continued to build on these lessons by staying in touch with fashion
trends, architecting a distinct store identity, understanding the inclinations of its
customers, and continually enhancing their shopping experience. That explains how
Westside has emerged as a successful business, with a customer base of over
800,000 people, many of whom swear by the cut and fit, style and price of the
chains offerings
The age group of people visiting the store is in between 18-40. (Upper middle and
middleclass) The attraction of the shopping is basically the female population. The
movement of mens apparels is also due to the ladies buying for the men.

STORE LOCATIONS
There are more than 50 Westside stores established in various cities and states of
India which includes Jammu, Vadodra, Delhi, Pune, Mumbai, Surat, Rajkot, Nagpur,
Mysore, Lucknow, Jaipur, Indore, Noida, Gurgaon and Ghaziabad are few among
others. With immense growth in the retail sector, Westside has become one of the
leading outlets to cater to the needs of potential buyers.
The Westside model
Westsides accomplishments can be attributed to its strategy of establishing stores in
what can be described as catchment areas, adopting a private-label format and
fashioning, so to speak, a selling proposition that connects quality and affordability.
These factors have been such strong differentiators that even though the Westside
chain is smaller than some of its competitors it has 69 stores it is one of the
most successful and consistently profitable formats in the organised retail segment.
Despite the recent economic slowdown, Westside has managed to ride the waves by
concentrating on optimising costs, tightening inventory control and taking a
disciplined approach with aging merchandise. These and other endeavours fetched
Westside the Asia Retail Congress 2008 Retailer of the Year, Private Label award,
an honour bestowed by the retail industry. Westside has also recently won the
Images Retailer of the Year Department Store at the Images Retail Awards of
2009.

Another critical aspect for Westside has been a central warehousing system that
controls products sourced from over 300 vendors, ships merchandise to all of the
chains outlets, and monitors each stores requirements. Products are refreshed
every week, a fact that enthuses Westside loyalists and gets them to make regular
visits to their area stores.

STORE FORMAT
Format: Mid-price offerings, private label fashion
Launch: 1998, in Bangalore (erstwhile Littlewoods, a UK-based store)
Selling proposition: Affordable style and quality merchandise
Key categories: Apparel and footwear
Store size: 8,000-34,000 square feet
Present: 69 stores
Plans: To open eight-ten stores in the current financial year

SERVICE AND STORE ATMOSPHERE IN WESTSIDE

Pre purchase services include accepting telephone and mail orders,

advertising, window and interior display, fitting rooms, fashion shows.

It provides post purchase service including shipping and delivery, gift

wrapping, adjustments and returns, alteration and tailoring.

It also provides ancillary services including general information, check

cashing, parking, restaurants, repairs, interior decorating, credit etc.

The Westside stores wear a bright, festive look and, in keep with the mood of the
season, hosting a festival bright.
With the sole objective of rewarding its loyal customers for their patronage, Westside
has lined up a bonanza of surprise gifts. Every shopper gets a scratch and win card
which entitles the, entry into a contest. Those making purchases above Rs.1500 are
also entitled to receive other pleasant surprises.

ARRANGEMENT

Ground floor

Cosmetics

Jewellery

Watches

Bags

First floor

Women section

Children section

Household item

Second floor( men section)

Casual clothing

Formal wear

Ethnic wear

Shoes

The Promotion technique used by Westside:

Club West Card Programme
Fashion Logy

It also provides 4 levels of services:

Self Service
Self Selection
Limited Service
Full Service

PRODUCT LINE
Style, affordable prices, quality: these are the factors that have shaped
Westsides

success

story

in

the

retail

fashion

stores

b u s i n e s s . The Westside chain has, ever since, been setting the standards
for other fashion retailers to follow. Westside stands out from the competition for a
variety of reasons. One is that a majority of the brands the chain stocks and sells are
its own, u n l i k e r e t a i l e r s w h o s t o r e m u l t i p l e l a b e l s . A b o u t 9 0
p e r c e n t o f W estsides offerings are home-grown, and they cater

t o d i f f e r e n t customer segments. The other 10 per cent includes toys, cosmetics

and lingerie.

Westside has recently expanded its range of merchandise by offering outfits from
some of Indias best known fashion designers, among them Wendell Rodericks,
Anita Dongre, Krishna Mehta and Mona Pali. This is an interesting market shift, since
it means moving away from the chains only-our-own-brands concept.
Westside is a departmental store having several product line.

PRIVATE BRANDS IN WESTSIDE

2F4U

SRC

Gia

Urban angel

Intima

David jones

Ascot

Blackberry

Lee

Spykar

Provogue

The trendy household section has a complete new range of bed linen in elephant
motifs, floral motifs and paisley designs. The color palette for the festive collection
includes flaming orange, royal blue and other vibrant colors to depict festivity.

The store has also introduced a new range of furniture and other household goods
including cabinets, butler trays and mirrors in wood with antique finish

Facing the challenge

The greatest challenge for Westside in its quest for a place in the retail sun is not the
competition from similar organized players, but from the unorganized sector (98 per
cent of Indias retail garment industry operates in the unorganized sector).T h e
other challenge for W estside is that the retail fashion business in
t h e c o u n t r y i s becoming increasingly crowded with new players, Indian
and

foreign.

Among

the

new

entrants have been W ills

Sport, Lifestyle, Raymonds (Be), Globus, Nike, Crocodile,Mango and, the

latest, Marks & Spencer

REFERENCES

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/16142957/Study-of-organizational-behavior-atwestside

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/16142957/Study-of-organizational-behavior-atwestside

http://www.mywestside.com/aiding.aspx

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trent_%28Westside%29