27 September 2007

Hipermarket kompak jadi strategi ekspansi

Hipermarket kompak jadi strategi ekspansi

Strategi baru tampaknya mulai dilancarkan peritel hipermarket. Setelah jor-joran membuka gerai di lahan sewa mal hingga ada yang lebih dari 10.000 m2 kini mereka malah gencar meluncurkan toko dengan luas lahan lebih kecil.

Format hipermarket dengan lahan lebih kecil tersebut dikenal� dengan istilah hipermarket� kompak (compact hypermarket). Luas tokonya ada yang kurang dari 5.000 m2, meski tetap menjual barang lebih dari 30.000 jenis, seperti hipermarket di lahan superbesar.

"Sekarang ini makin susah mendapatkan mal yang bisa menyediakan lahan seluas 11.500 m2," ujar Emi Nuel, Vice President Head of Store Operation Hypermart.

Kesulitan mendapatkan lahan mal yang superbesar menjadi pemicu Matahari untuk membuka gerai Hypermart ke-31 di Mega Glodok Kemayoran (MGK) dengan areal belanja seluas hanya 4.500 m2.

Di MGK, Hypermart memang mendapat areal lahan 7.200 m2, tapi 2.700 m2 dipakai untuk gudang.� Meski demikian Hypermart ini mampu memajang 30.000 jenis barang.

Daya tampung barang yang tak kalah dengan toko hipermarket seluas lebih dari 8.000 m2, membuat pengelola Hypermart tetap optimistis mampu menarik konsumen yang banyak.

Selama ini masyarakat� menyukai hipermarket karena berkonsep satu toko semua barang ada, mulai produk segar, barang kebutuhan sehari-hari, furnitur, peralatan kantor, peralatan sekolah, peralatan mobil, hingga urusan hobi.

"Hipermarket yang tak terlalu besar akan membuat waktu belanja lebih efisien, dan konsumen tidak capek. Meski hipermarket kami ada yang lebih kecil, tapi tetap nyaman, lorongnya bisa dilalui dua troli tanpa bertabrakan," kata Emi.

Strategi Giant


PT Hero Supermarket Tbk tampaknya juga memiliki strategi baru untuk Giant, merek hipermarket yang namanya makin meroket sejak keberadaannya di negeri jiran Malaysia.

Hero memboyong Giant ke Indonesia dengan toko yang lebih kecil dari sebelumnya. Tapi Hero menyatakan toko yang lebih kecil itu sebagai supermarket.

Giant dengan luasan toko lebih kecil dibangun setelah Hero menghadirkan toko hipermarket� di Villa Melati Mas Serpong, Maspion Surabaya, Cimanggis, Mega Bekasi, Hyperpoint Bandung, Plaza Semanggi, Pondok Gede, Ciledug Kreo Tangerang, Bandung Supermal, Pondok Thandra Surabaya, Points Square Lebak Bulus, Sun City Sidoarjo, Depok, Lindeteves, Serpong Town Square, Botani Square Bogor, Kalibata.

Sementara itu, Giant yang diklaim sebagai supermarket ada di Giant Ciputat, Giant Tambun, Giant Cinere, Giant Pondok Kopi, Giant Bogor Internusa, Giant Citra Garden, Giant Wiyung Surabaya, Giant Flamboyan Bandung, dan Giant Karawang.

Lalu bagaimana dengan regulasi yang hampir jadi? Berdasarkan draf� Perpres Penataan dan Pembinaan Pasar Tradisional, Pusat Perbelanjaan dan Toko Modern, hipermarket harus ada di lahan belanja lebih besar dari 5.000 m2.

Ketentuan minimal lahan tersebut lebih luas ketimbang yang di Perda DKI Jakarta No. 2/2002 tentang Perpasaran Swasta. Pada peraturan itu, yang masuk dalam format hipermarket adalah toko dengan luas lahan belanja di atas 4.000 m2.

Sejak kehadirannya di Indonesia pada 1998, peritel saling bersaing menghadirkan lahan belanja yang seluas-luasnya, sehingga pilihan bagi keluarga berekreasi di toko hipermarket pun menjadi tidak asing lagi.

Tapi tampaknya masa memberikan lahan belanja yang terus meningkat luasannya perlu dipertimbangkan lagi, seiring dengan makin langkanya pusat belanja besar. Memang masalah� pusat belanja mampu menyediakan lahan belanja luas menjadi kendala utama.

Ibarat pepatah tidak ada rotan akar pun jadi, sepertinya menjadi landasan cara peritel modern untuk meneruskan ekspansi gerai hipermarketnya.

Lagipula dengan luasan lahan belanja yang lebih kecil, bisa dipastikan peritel akan lebih mudah melakukan ekspansi untuk menghadirkan hipermarketnya di berbagai pelosok kota. (linda.silitonga@ bisnis.co.id)

Oleh Linda T. Silitonga
Wartawan Bisnis Indonesia

 
 
 
 

24 September 2007

Liz Claiborne to Sell Four Brands to HK's Li & Fung

Liz Claiborne to Sell Four Brands to HK’s Li & Fung (Sep. 14)
Liz Claiborne Inc. has agreed to sell four of its moderately priced brands to the U.S. arm of Hong Kong-based sourcing and trading company Li & Fung Ltd., according to a Reuters report.

The sale, expected to close in the fourth quarter, includes the trademarks and inventory of the Emma James, Intuitions, JH Collectibles and Tapemeasure brands—which collectively yield about $150 million in annual sales.

The deal would not involve cash. Li & Fung will be acquiring $30 million in inventory and assets, Bruce Rockowitz, president of the firm’s trading arm, said.

“Each one of these brands will go to a specific retailer,” Rockowitz told Reuters. “They will be repositioned in the market as proprietary brands—it will be larger and narrowed to one retailer, like Martha Stewart to Kmart.”

Liz Claiborne, which owns more than three dozen brands, put 16 of them up for sale in July as part of an overhaul by new CEO William McComb to shift the company’s focus from wholesale to retail by expanding a few high-growth brands and shedding many others, the report said

 
 
 

Critics Target Wal-Mart on China

Critics Target Wal-Mart on China (Sep. 20)
Union-backed Wal-Mart critics unveiled an ad campaign Thursday that seeks to tie the world's largest retailer to the recent slew of safety problems in Chinese imports, the Associated Press reported. It is the first campaign from a new team of strategists at WakeUpWalMart.com after the two founding leaders left in July for the Democratic presidential campaign of John Edwards.

WakeUpWalMart's new ad claims that Wal-Mart's price pressure on Chinese suppliers leads to safety problems in some imports. It will run in 32 markets during morning and evening news shows through the weekend and kick off a series of ads on the topic of China.

Wal-Mart, which recently announced stepped-up safety testing of imported toys, defended its large business with China, as it has in the past.

"Our commitment to low prices is never at the cost of safety. Product safety has always been and will continue to be a top priority at Wal-Mart," spokesman David Tovar said.

Wal-Mart is China's largest single-corporate customer. In 2004, the last year it released a total, the company said it purchased roughly $9 billion in goods from China directly and another $9 billion indirectly, or goods produced in China for another company and then sold to Wal-Mart, according to the report

 
 
 
 
 

17 September 2007

What is merchandise planning?

Ask a dozen retailers "What is merchandise planning?" and you will get at least a dozen different definitions. This is because it can be difficult to limit, and therefore to define, its scope. If we are going to create a short definition of the term it will have to be a generalised one. That way we can apply it to the whole range of activities that our twelve experts would include.

Merchandise Planning then is "A systematic approach. It is aimed at maximising return on investment, through planning sales and inventory in order to increase profitability. It does this by maximising sales potential and minimising losses from mark - downs and stock - outs."

That gives us a broad-brush definition. Let's now take a look at these ideas in detail.

It is a "systematic approach" in many ways. You need the systems to ensure that you have the right people, the right processes and the right computerised support. Without the people and processes you will get nowhere. The software available is merely an enabler - the final piece of a jigsaw.

It is "aimed at maximising return on investment", but where is this investment made? Most obviously we are talking about a financial outlay in stock, but less evidently there is also considerable financial investment in retail space, people and corporate infrastructure. Again, whilst financial investment is the most obvious type, we should not overlook the "opportunity cost" of the investment in time that is required by planning.

We achieve the goals "through planning sales and inventory". These two elements are inextricably linked and finding an optimum balance is the key to retail success. We are doing more here, though, than merely calculating a purchase quantity. We need to balance carefully the requirement to support sales with the constraints and tensions imposed by store layouts and warehousing and transportation issues.

We put the effort into Merchandise Planning "in order to increase profitability". Profitability is the key driver of most businesses.  Effective merchandise planning delivers margin increases directly to the bottom line. We achieve the increase in profitability "by maximising sales potential and minimising losses from mark - downs and stock - outs". There are two major areas of profit leakage in retail. Firstly lost sales resulting from lack of stock and secondly forced margin reductions due to excessive stock.

If we can provide systems that can help us to identify and support the winners whilst diverting resources from the losers that suck the profit from the business then we shall be successful. A typical retail clothing business will lose about 15% of its turnover in markdown and perhaps 10% due to lost sales. If we assume a turnover of $100 million, then we are looking at a loss of $25 million here. Reducing each of these figures by 1%, adds $2 million to the bottom line. What is equally important it that this profit increase can be delivered in a sustained way. That is "Merchandise Planning".
 
An article by John Hobson
 

13 September 2007

TOP 500 Retail Asia Pacific 2007 - INDONESIA



The 2007 Retail Asia Pacific (RAP) Top 500 Ranking & Awards
Retail Asia ( www.retailasiaonline.com), JULY 2007 Edition

Clearly devoted to serving the retail and supply-chain industry in more ways then one, Retail Asia Publishing Pte Ltd had long aspired to set a platform that appraise, raises and recognizes the development and growth of retailing throughout the Asia Pacific region. In the course of over fifteen years of publishing the leading retail business management magazine in a region of diversified cultures, nationalities, believes and practices, Retail Asia successfully mooted, organized and inaugurated the Retail Asia Pacific (RAP) Top 500 Ranking & Awards in April of 2004.

The precise and successful launch of the first ever RAP Top 500 ranking and awards in 2004 was also made possible with the collaboration and professional dedication of the highly renowned research capabilities of Euromonitor International, the Official Market Information Provider and a principal partner of the program. Together with the mastery of KPMG whose global reputation in audit and advisory services hardly needs elaboration, the Organizer (Retail Asia) had on board yet another excellent Principal Program Partner. This was to become the beginning of a program that is increasingly the ultimate benchmark of retailing standards and practices in the region.

ID # RAP # OUTLET TYPE BRAND(S) RETAILING COMPANY
1 147 Hypermarket CARREFOUR Carrefour Indonesia
2 195 Dept Store RAMAYANA Ramayana Lestari Sentosa
3 233 Hypermarket HYPERMART Matahari Putra Prima
4 240 Hypermarket GIANT Hero Supermarket
5 254 C-Store INDOMARET Indomarco Prismatama
6 263 C-Store ALFAMART Sumber Alfaria Trijaya
7 313 Supermarket ALFA SUPERMARKET Alfa Supermarket
8 320 Supermarket SUPER INDO Lion Superindo
9 352 Supermarket HERO Hero Supermarket
10 354 Dept Store SOGO, JAVA, DEBENHAMS Mitra Adi Perkasa
11 369 Book Store GRAMEDIA Gramedia Asri Media
12 414 Hardline ELECTRONIC CITY Graha Sudirman Centre
13 453 Dept Store TOSERBA YOGYA Akur Pratama
14 458 Health & Beauty KIMIA FARMA Kimia Farma Apotek
15 492 Hardline ACE HARDWARE Ace Indoritel Perkakas