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4Ps
JUST ONE STEP FOR BHARTI; A GIANT LEAP FOR THE MITTAL BROTHERS!
4Ps
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 Rajan Bharti Mittal, MD, Bharti Enterprises
“It’s not fair to indulge in unjustified expansion”
4Ps B&M: Why should a retailer shift from traditional wholesalers and buy from Best Price Modern Wholesale?
RBM: Because Best Price will provide a retailer with whatever he needs to buy for his store under one roof at the best price and a much better quality. A normal kiraana store carries around 700-800 SKUs and for that he has to deal with 20-25 wholesalers and distributors. We’re committed to maintain a long-term relationship with our buyers. It’ll be highly beneficial for resellers to become partners with us.
4Ps B&M: What monetary benefits will a retailer stand to gain if he buys from Best Price?
RBM: There will be a huge margin on our goods. For instance, on commodities a retailer will have a margin of 3-5%, while on FMCG goods he can save up to 8-10%. On certain goods, a retailer can even save up to 20-25%. All our prices will be benchmarked with the mandi prices and our goods will be sourced directly from producers and manufacturers.
4Ps B&M: And the supply chain?
RBM: Our supply chain is robust and strong. It’s very strong. People have been asking us why we chose the Punjab belt for the roll out of our convenience store, Easyday, and for our cash and carry business. We’ve our distribution centre here and our supply chain is pretty much fixed.
4Ps B&M: Earlier, retailers focussed on increasing their retail space. Now that the Indian retail saga is set to enter a new revolution, what changes do you foresee?
RBM: I think a couple of challenges that were there in real estate seem to be easing out now. The markets are bouncing back and the Indian GDP growth is hovering around 7%. We believe that the new government will bring certain reforms in the retail sector and ease out the FDI norms. The organised retail sector is still at a very nascent stage and I believe that there is room for more players to co-exist and contribute to the growth of this sector.
4Ps B&M: What are your expansion plans for Easyday?
RBM: We’re currently operating 26 stores. We’ve covered Punjab and Haryana and now we’re looking at expanding in the Delhi & NCR region.
4Ps B&M: Bharti has been very low-key with the launch of its retail outlets…
RBM: No, I think we’re pretty much on track. We’ve opened two retail models – corporate & retail. We’ve set up a strong back-end and are now ready to meet customer requirements. We’re working for long term and until we’ve cracked the code, its not fair to indulge into unjustified expansion.
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 Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman, Bharti Enterprises
“The spectrum issue concerns all mobile operators in India”
4Ps B&M: Now that Airtel has achieved a 100 million subscriber base, what are the offerings in store for the shareholders of the company?
SBM: We are currently in the 15th year of operation. Although Airtel has become a profitable venture, we are yet to be cash flow positive. Only a few weeks back we announced the maiden dividend of Airtel. Shareholders thought it would take us atleast one more year to turn cash flow positive and only then will we declare dividend. However, due to the de-merger of our private company, we were able to declare dividend. The fact is that Airtel has invested Rs.70,000 crore in setting up hard infrastructure. There are very few industries wherein companies have to invest such huge sum of money. And telecom is one such industry. Even the maintenance cost of the infrastructure sums up to about Rs.20,000 crore per year. So, it’s a milestone for us to be able to become cash flow positive.
4Ps B&M: In times to come, how do you see the spectrum being allocated?
SBM: Spectrum is an issue that concerns all mobile operators in the country. It is the lifeline and the oxygen on which telecom service providers breathe and live. All of us in the telecom industry want a single regime under which the spectrum is allocated to those who need it and we are absolutely aligned to the government process in the form of auctioning of the license. But we want a stable regime and only one process should be followed. Earlier, the department felt that we need spectrum on the basis of number of subscribers. However, this practice is not followed anywhere else in the world. It was fine then, but now there are talks about auctioning. We are OK with that too as long as there is stable regime universally applicable to all players. We already have the lowest spectrum as compared to anyone else in the world and packing more and more customers is becoming increasingly difficult.
4Ps B&M: What makes Airtel the best telecom service company in India?
SBM: At Airtel, the customers are at the heart of every service that we offer and this is what makes us special in their eyes. We have always believed in being relevant to the entire customer base that we have.
4Ps B&M: What will be the future growth drivers for Airtel?
SBM: We’re hoping that the availability of 3G will lead to better data services. Already, music-related services are quite popular and we hope that in times to come, their popularity would continue to increase.
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