INTRODUCTION:

Kishore Biyani (Rajasthani; born 9 August 1961) is an entrepreneur who has been credited with changing the face of modern retailing in India, with the introduction of innovation designed discount hyper markets and forming the concept of destination malls.

His company, Future Group operates 3 million square feet of retail space spread across 25 cities in India. The most notable formats being Big Bazaar, Home Town, Pantaloons and Central chain of shops. He has been called India's own Sam Walton.

Mr. Kishore Biyani is the Chief Executive Officer at Future Group. He is also the Chairman and Managing Director at Pantaloon Retail (India) Limited. Mr. Biyani is a Managing Partner and Chairman at Indivision Capital Fund. He is the Chairman of Future Capital Holdings.

Biography for Kishore Biyani

Name: Kishore BiyaniCompany: Future GroupNationality: India

Kishore Biyani is the Managing Director of Pantaloon Retail (India) Limited and the Group Chief Executive Officer of Future Group. He has led Pantaloon Retail’s emergence as the India’s leading retailer operating multiple retail formats that now cater to almost the consumption basket of a large section of Indian consumers.

Kishore Biyani led the company’s foray into organised retail with the opening up of the Pantaloons family store in 1997. This was followed in 2001 with the launch of Big Bazaar, a uniquely Indian hypermarket format that democratized shopping in India. It blends the look, touch and feel of Indian bazaars with aspects of modern retail like choice, convenience and quality. This was followed by a number of other formats including Food Bazaar, Central and Home Town.

The year, 2006 marked the evolution of Future Group, that brought together the multiple initiatives taken by group companies in the areas of Retail, Brands, Space, Capital, Logistics and Media.

Kishore Biyani advocates ‘Indianness’ as the core value driving the group. The group’s corporate credo is ‘Rewrite Rules, Retain Values.’

Kishore Biyani was awarded the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2006 in the Services Sector and the Lakshmipat Singhania - IIM Lucknow Young Business Leader Award by Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh in 2006. He was also awarded the CNBC First Generation Entrepreneur of the Year 2006.

Kishore Biyani was born in August, 1961 and is married to Sangita and they have two daughters. He recently authored a book, ‘It Happened In India’ that captures his entrepreneurial journey and the growth of modern retailing in India.

It Happened in India - The Story of Pantaloons, Big Bazaar, Central, and the great Indian consumer

It Happened in India - Kishore Biyani with Dipayan Baishya

Finally a business book from India! And no, it did not come from the Tata’s or Birla’s or Ambani’s. It has come from the reasonably unlikely quarters of Biyanis. Actually it is just one Biyani that is famous yet: Kishore Biyani, the first generation business man who has given retail in India the shape it is in. Sure we don’t know how are Pantaloons and Big Bazars and other ventures of Kishore Biyani going to shape up in the wake of Reliance Retail and foreign players. And neither did Kishore Biyani set up the first mall in the country. But he could still be heralded as the Father of Indian Retail simply because he has, as Malcolm Gladwell would say, “Tipped” the retail industry in India. He has taken malls from the domain of the elitist to the masses. And even though the business of Kishore Biyani is minuscule compared to Walmart or Tatas, he has achieved a tremendous amount, enough to warrant an autobiography of hisbusinesslife.

And true to his style, this book by Kishore Biyani was meant for the masses. It was released in paperback, and priced at Rs. 99. Which is the least I have paid for a business book ever!

However, a good business man, and a thriving business operation, does not necessarily a good business book make! That is exactly what has happened here. The book oversimplifies the whole business a bit too much for the reader to grasp the complexities of the business environment, that too, in a sector which is otherwise dominated by the unorganized players. The best business books tend to chart the journey of everyone involved, capturing sufficient detail to convey the challenges of the business without over doing it which would bore the reader. It’s a fine line to tread. And this book is on the simpler side of the line. It misses that investigative journalistic touch and the business details. Perhaps if an independent author had written a book instead of Kishore Biyani himself, assisted by a writer, he might have done a better job.

Having said that, the book does give glimpses of the Indian Retail scenario. And even the brief insights are quite a delight to read. The growth of the business itself, and the thoughts of Kishore Biyani at every juncture and inflection point for his company are quite well narrated. The

anecdotes and comments by people who have worked with Kishore Biyani… umm… well there are too many of them and most are generic praises that anyone could shower on anyone. But then, some of them highlight specific facets of Kishore Biyani’s business style and acumen, and they cover up for all the other write-ups which are plain flattery.

The book is not really written for the B-school audiences. It is meant to fire up that entrepreneurial spark in the people who are looking for a hero to emulate. And yes, Kishore Biyani is a source of bucketfuls of inspiration for such young guns. This book will be more than vindicated if it manages to produce even a single Kishore Biyani in this country of over 1 billion people.

Biyani’s Kingdom

Pantaloons

Big Bazaar

Food Bazaar

Future Bazaar

Brand Factory

Central

Planet Sport

Lee Cooper

Home Town

E zone

Furniture Bazaar

Shoe Factory

Depot

Pantaloon Retail (India) Limited

Pantaloon Retail (India) Limited, is India’s leading retailer that operates multiple retail formats in both the value and lifestyle segment of the Indian consumer market. Headquartered in Mumbai (Bombay), the company operates over 16 million square feet of retail space, has over 1000 stores across 73 cities in India and employs over 30,000 people.

The company’s leading formats include Pantaloons, a chain of fashion outlets,  Big Bazaar, a uniquely Indian hypermarket chain, Food Bazaar, a supermarket chain, blends the look, touch and feel of Indian bazaars with aspects of modern retail like choice, convenience and quality and Central, a chain of seamless destination malls. Some of its other formats include Brand Factory, Blue Sky, aLL, Top 10 and Star and Sitara. The company also operates an online portal, futurebazaar.com.

Future Value Retail Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of Pantaloon Retail (India) Limited. This entity has been created keeping in mind the growth and the current size of the company’s value retail business, led by its format divisions, Big Bazaar and Food Bazaar. 

The company operates 120 Big Bazaar stores, 170 Food Bazaar stores, among other formats, in over 70 cities across the country, covering an operational retail space of over 6 million square feet. As a focussed entity driving the growth of the group's value retail business, Future Value Retail Limited will continue to deliver more value to its customers, supply partners, stakeholders and communities across the country and shape the growth of modern retail in India.

A subsidiary company, Home Solutions Retail (India) Limited, operates Home Town, a large-format home solutions store, Collection i, selling home furniture products and eZone focussed on catering to the consumer electronics segment.

Pantaloon Retail is the flagship company of Future Group, a business group catering to the entire Indian consumption space.

Big Bazaar

Big Bazaar, ‘Is se sasta aur accha kahi nahin’ - India’s first hypermarket chain launched.

Big Bazaar is the chain of retail stores of the big banner Pantaloon Retail (India) Ltd. , which in turn is a segment of the Kishore Biyani , regulated Future Group of Companies. Moreover the customer friendly ambiance and the organized retailing of products also makes Big Bazaar one of the successful retail companies in India.

There are 89 Big Bazaars in India and the format is the highest revenue and profit generating unit for the Future Group that Biyani founded. Biyani has plans to hive off Big Bazaar and may eventually take it public after doubling the number of stores by March 2009 .

It cannot be a zero-sum game anymore. We need to create win-win-win scenarios - where we can win, our business partners can win and the customer can win.

where he describes himself as the creator and destroyer (and re-creator) of all that he builds - he doesn’t believe in preserving because that’s when the company starts stagnating. So, every few years, KB changes their entire organization structure to adapt to the current and future environments, and that’s why they now have a new name “Future Group” :

ACE future the word which signifies optimism, growth, achievement, strength, beauty, rewards and perfection. Future encourages us to explore areas yet unexplored, write rules yet unwritten; create new opportunities and new successes. To strive for a glorious future brings to us our strength, our ability to learn, unlearn and re-learn, our ability to evolve.

We, in Future Group, will not wait for the Future to unfold itself but create future scenarios in the consumer space and facilitate consumption because consumption is development. Thereby, we will effect socio-economic development for our customers, employees, shareholders, associates and partners.

Big Bazaar is not just another hypermarket (a bit like a discount store). It caters to every need of your family. Where Big Bazaar scores over other stores is its value for money proposition for the Indian customers. It provides discounts ranging from 8-6 percent to the market.

Promising that nobody sells cheaper and better, the Big Bazaar store, and offers special discounts and offers of up to 60 per cent on more than 1,60,000 products 365 days a year.

Food Bazaar

Ab Ghar Chalaana Kitna Aasaan

Food Bazaar invites you for a shopping experience, unique by its ambience. At Food Bazaar you will find a hitherto unseen blend of a typical Indian Bazaar and International supermarket atmosphere.

Flagged off in April’02, Food Bazaar is a chain of large supermarkets with a difference, where the best of Western and Indian values have been put together to ensure your satisfaction and comfort while shopping.

The western values of convenience, cleanliness and hygiene are offered through pre packed commodities and the Indian values of "See-Touch-Feel" are offered through the “bazaar-like” atmosphere created by displaying staples out in the open, all at very economical and affordable prices without any compromise on quality.

The best of everything offered with a seal of freshness and purity will definitely make your final buying decision a lot easier.

Futurebazaar.com

Futurebazaar.com offers the widest range of products at ‘lowest prices – everyday!’

Having pioneered the retailing business in India, PRIL has now decided to revolutionize the consumer e-commerce business in India. It intends to provide customers with a streamlined, efficient and world class personalized shopping experience, which will be supported with the best technology platform.

Buying products is a 3 step simple process. All one has to do is Search, Register and Buy. Here you can expect a shopping experience akin to shopping at an actual bazaar but with added simplicity & everyday low prices and an assurance of 'your product' will be delivered within 7 days of purchase.

We are proud to inform you that Future Bazaar has been named as the Best Indian Website 2007 in the Shopping category by PC World.

Future Bazaar won the top spot after beating other established players like Rediff, Indiatimes, Sify, ebay, Indiaplaza, Chennai Bazaar and India Mall. The award was presented to Future Bazaar for its "decent, no-nonsense approach, while providing a good shopping experience".

Brand Factory

Brand Factory brings to the Indian consumers the promise of revolutionizing value shopping by offering the best Indian and International brands at Smart Prices

Brand Factory promises its customers that value shopping is not about seconds’ experience, it’s not about a garage sale environment and it’s not about buying cheap. Instead, it’s all about an amazing experience of ‘Buying Smart’.

The thought behind Brand Factory is to raise the bar of expectation and experience when it comes to ‘Brand + Bargain Shopping’. Over the years Factory Outlets have become distinct shopping destinations with distinct audiences. With fashion cycles reducing, larger quantities of stocks are reaching factory outlets. But then what gets compromised in the process is the brand and its image.

The emphasis at Brand Factory is to offer the customer the widest range of brands and categories possible at absolutely great prices, in an ambience that befits the brand. Brand Factory presents the brands in a fully air-conditioned, slick environment varying between 70,000 to 1,50,000 square feet.

The stores offers a wide range of products including apparels for men and women; infant wear; accessories; cosmetics; footwear; sportswear, luggage; home linen and much more.

Brand Factory hosts several Indian and International fashion brands including Levis, Pepe Jeans, Dockers, Wrangler, ProVogue, Arrow, Nike, Adidas, Reebok, Louis Phillip, Allen Solly, Reid and Taylor, Gini and Jony amongst others.

CentralShop, Eat and Celebrate

Launched in May'04 at Bangalore, Central is a showcase, seamless mall and the first of its kind in India. The thought behind this pioneering concept was to give customers an unobstructed and a pure shopping experience and to ensure the best brands in the Indian market are made available to the discerning Indian customer.

Central offers everything for the urban aspirational shopper to shop, eat and celebrate. Located in the heart of the city, Central believes its customers should not have to travel long distances to reach us; instead we must be present where customers frequently visit.

Central houses over 300 brands across categories, such as apparel, footwear and accessories for women, men, children and infants, apart from a whole range of Music, Books, Coffee Shops, Food Courts, Super Markets (Food Bazaar), Fine Dining Restaurants, Pubs and Discotheques. The mall also has a separate section for services such as Travel, Finance, Investment, Insurance, Concert/Cinema Ticket Booking, Bill Payments and other miscellaneous services. In addition, Central houses Central Square, a dedicated space for product launches, impromptu events, daring displays, exciting shows, and art exhibitions. Central is an integral part of the city and in the long run a City should become part of CENTRAL!

In a short span of its existence Central has revolutionized and redefined the shopping experience in India. At Central, customers no longer only shop, they get SHOP-ATAINED!

We invite you to experience this irresistible retail destination at Bangalore, Hyderabad and Pune cities.

Planet Sports

India's largest multi-brand sports and lifestyle speciality retail chain, Planet Sports offers the largest collection of International sports and lifestyle brands. Planet Sports stores have extensive offerings for sportswear and equipment across all categories including running, tennis, training, golf, fitness, basketball, motor sports as well as other lifestyle products.

Also available at the Planet Sports stores are lifestyle products across categories like footwear, apparel, accessories and sports equipments.

Planet Sports prides itself for the sports expertise it has built over time and also for having introduced renowned brands across sports categories like swimming, tennis, squash, badminton, soccer, golf and basketball. Its brand portfolio includes leading sports brands like Converse, Speedo, Wilson, Prince, Callaway, Spalding, Airwalk, Adidas, Puma, Nike and Reebok.

One of the most preferred destinations for sports lovers as well as avid sports professionals, over time, Planet Sports has become an ideal conduit for the latest in global trends in the sports and lifestyle segment.

The aim of the company is to be the most admired sports player in a multi-sports, multi-product format and to augment India’s sports culture. Planet Sports strives to provide integrated, reliable and cost efficient sports offerings to Indian consumers. At the core of Planet Sports lies its consistent endeavour to innovate, ideate and the essence is well reflected when they say “For the Sports called Life.”

Lee Cooper

legacy of 100 years combined with best fabrics, coolest fits, most amazing washes and the finest quality denims, that’s what Lee Cooper is all about.

Founded in 1908 by Morris Cooper, Lee Cooper is one of the original denim brands in the world today. Since inception, Lee Cooper has been at the forefront of British and European fashion for decades leading trends, developing innovations and driving youth culture. Already distinguished from its American counterparts as ‘the Great British and Original European Jeans’ brand, Lee Cooper is now in India, as Lee Cooper India Ltd.

In India, the brand maintains its global promises of offering exceptional young products supported by a communication message that mixes fashion, sport and entertainment, enhanced by fantastic product images. Regarded as a brand that is fun to wear and be associated with, Lee Cooper offers the entire range of lifestyle products in the fashion category for young men and ladies.

The brand is distributed through exclusive brand stores and large format stores such as Central, Pantaloons etc. The casual wear range includes jeans, shirts, T-shirts, shorts, non-denim trousers, sweaters, sweatshirts, capris etc. The lifestyle brands from Lee Cooper include:

Lee Cooper: Men and women. Blue Diamond: An exclusive casual line for men and women for the Indian market.

Lee Coopers Juniors: For boys and girls between 4-14 years.

Lee Cooper through Famous Basics offers a great range at affordable prices without compromising on the quality. You can find a range of Men’s shirts, knits and denims, as well as women’s range of shirts, knits and denims. These are available at all Big Bazaar and Fashion@Big Bazaar stores.

In India, the company also markets Lee Cooper sunglasses and eyewear.

Over a period of 100 years, Lee Cooper has established a cult following amongst people from all spheres of life. Shoppers can get a glimpse of Lee Cooper’s much revered past at their exclusive stores, which showcase the magical and nostalgic moments of the journey of the brand, right from its inception till date.

HomeTown

A home is a space away from the world, a comfort zone. Therefore, the process of setting it up should be equally comfortable and convenient.

HomeTown, a unique, first of its kind home improvement retail format in India, is a one-stop destination for complete home-making solutions. It provides consumers, all that goes into building a house and everything to make it a ‘Home’, all under one roof.

It offers a home making experience that is democratic, hassle free and convenient, with an array of home products and services of skilled technicians. All of this comes with service and product warranties and great affordable prices.

HomeTown’s range of products include:

Furniture Bath and Sanitary Ware

Modular Kitchens

Paints and Wallpaper

Tiles and Wooden Flooring

Carpentry and Hardware

Electricals and Decor Lighting

Electronics

Furnishings and Accessories

The format also offers a one of its kind Design and Build service, which encompasses experienced designers who help design the home, and a team of skilled technicians for services like carpentry, flooring and tile installation, plumbing, sanitary ware installation, painting and wall paper, electrical fittings and much more. Design and Build is flexible, transparent and easy on the pocket.

EXPERIENCE EELECTRONICS E zone

Sight, Sound, Smell, Taste and Touch.  Bring all your senses alive for a “never before” shopping experience at eZone, the electronics specialty store that offers a wide range of leading consumer durables & electronics brands, to meet the electronics needs of the entire family.

eZone, with the catch phrase ‘experience electronics’ is an experience led lifestyle format that brings together the best in national and international consumer electronic and durables brands in a family-centric environment. Typically in excess of 12,000 square feet in size, an eZone store truly enables you to experience electronics, through three dedicated zones - Liberation Zone, Experience Zone and Home Zone.

The Liberation Zone offers personal products like computers, laptops, handy cams, MP 3 players and mobile phones. While entertainment products such as Plasma / LCD, Flat TV’s, Home Theatre systems, DVD players, and Stereo systems are displayed in the Experience Zone. And in the Home Zone segment, one gets to pick electronic goods of his or her choice including Refrigerators, Air Conditioners, washing machines and Microwave ovens among other kitchen related appliances.

eZone is not only about showcasing electronics products and gadgets, but providing you with a complete shopping experience through touch & feel, allowing you to pick and choose from an array of best of brands under one roof. eZones are primarily stand alone concepts, but are also present within the Central malls.

E-Care - the special post-purchase customerservice support eZone also offers an unparalleled service and support through the special ‘E-Care’ customer support centre. E-Care is a special, dedicated support system designed to offer the best customer service after purchase of any product at EZone.

Furniture Bazaar

Furniture Bazaar is the specialty Furniture & Home Décor Store that attempts to democratize the process of home decoration by offering the trendiest Indian and imported products at the most affordable prices.

Located within most Big Bazaar stores and as stand-alone outlets, it offers a complete range of quality furniture, modular kitchens, lighting, furnishings, crockery and home accents at affordable prices. The store provides a live display of living rooms, bedrooms & modular kitchens with furnishings and accessories to provide customers a first hand look and feel of how

the furniture would look in their homes.

Sourced from various international destinations, the store caters to the furniture and home décor needs of your entire family.

At Furniture Bazaar you will find the a live display of living rooms, bedrooms & modular kitchens with furnishings and accessories to provide you a first hand look and feel of how the furniture would look in your home.

Collection

Collection i is a lifestyle furniture retail format that is built on the concept of Ideas for good living. Positioned as a complete ‘lifestyle’ solutions offering, for the homemaker, Collection i stores are designed to showcase the best of furniture in the segments of Living and Dining, Bedroom, Modular Kitchens and Childrens’ furniture.

Today, customers have greater sensitivity towards the look of their home. For them, Home is no longer just an indicator of status; it reflects their interests, lifestyle, global outlook and multi-dimensional personalities. Collection i provides solutions that meet this evolving lifestyle by offering products which are in-sync with the latest international home-making trends, designs, sizes, choices, special features and configurations.

Collection i is positioned to sell complete solutions for the homemaker as opposed to selling individual products. As such, the store provides a live display of living rooms, dining rooms, bedrooms & modular kitchens with furnishings and accessories to provide customers a first hand look and feel of how the furniture would look in their homes. Collection i also provides the customers the flexibility of adding or substituting accessories and accents to the display, thereby creating their own ideas for their home.

In-house designer  Collection i has an in-house designer available to help you mix and match furniture, furnishings and accessories to create those perfect rooms. This service is offered free of cost to customers.  Helpful Post-Purchase Support with one year warranty Collection i also offers a dedicated support personnel for installation of the furniture and complete support and service back up. Post purchase support and the one year warranty will ensure a hassle-free post-purchase experience for you

Shoe Factory

Amazing Choices Amazing Prices

Shoe factory brings with it a fresh experience in footwear retailing. A value format, to the core, Shoe Factory offers a huge range to choose from. Be it any brand, any size or for any occasion you will find it all here.

Shoe factory showcases a wide range of the latest and trendiest footwear and accessories, at great prices.

Flagged off in 2006, in Ahmedabad, Shoe factory will soon be seen in other towns and cities bringing with it a new chapter in footwear retail.

When at a shoe factory store, you are bound to notice the simplicity of navigating through well-defined zones for Men, Women and Kids footwear. Even the display is by Style, by Brands and by Size, ensuring that shopping for footwear becomes easy and fun.

Depot

Books, Music & Gifts

Depot is one of the youngest brands from the Pantaloon stable and is a tribute to our freedom of thought, speech and expression shared in a novel fashion with customers as books, multimedia, toys, stationary and gifts.

Depot is all about freedom and democracy and this is reflected in the relaxed manner in which products are displayed, the affordable pricing, the strong local flavour, the young, lively and interactive store experience, that are all designed in a way to liberate these categories and transform the way they are bought, sold and perceived in India.

At Depot, book lovers are offered a range of books that meet the needs and preference of every age group. From fiction to general reference, management and children’s material, you will find it all at Depot.

Music buffs are invited to select from a wide category of music CDs and cassettes spanning all genres like Rock, Pop, Hindi, Indipop and more. For the movie enthusiasts out there, we have a great selection of home videos (VCD and DVD) and multimedia (CD-ROMs).

Depot Store also has an attractive selection of gifts (candles, mugs, photo frames, themed packs) toys and stationery (office, children’s and fancy stationery) ensuring this is a one-stop shop for everyone and anyone who plans to gift their loved ones.

At Depot we endeavour to give our customers an Indian experience where we celebrate and give due importance to regional literature and music. In this regard, Depot aims to become a strong member of the local communities it operates in through a variety of events, engagements and social initiatives and we will be happy to keep you posted on these activities from time to time.

Depot is a lively, colourful, vibrant and happy retail space, which we hope you will visit in the near future. Inviting Reading Corners where you can be comfortable with a book of your choice and an Interactive Zone where you get to try out new board games, read new books, check out new toys and browse at the Interactive kiosk, await you at Depot.

Future Group

Future Group, led by its founder and Group CEO, Mr. Kishore Biyani, is one of India’s leading business houses with multiple businesses spanning across the consumption space. While retail forms the core business activity of Future Group, group subsidiaries are present in consumer finance, capital, insurance, leisure and entertainment, brand development, retail real estate development, retail media and logistics.

Led by its flagship enterprise, Pantaloon Retail, the group operates over 16 million square feet of retail space in 73 cities and towns and 65 rural locations across India. Headquartered in Mumbai (Bombay), Pantaloon Retail employs around 30,000 people and is listed on the Indian stock exchanges. The company follows a multi-format retail strategy that captures almost the entire consumption basket of Indian customers. In the lifestyle segment, the group operates Pantaloons, a fashion retail chain and Central, a chain of seamless malls. In the value segment, its marquee brand, Big Bazaar is a hypermarket format that combines the look, touch and feel of Indian bazaars with the choice and convenience of modern retail.

The group’s speciality retail formats include supermarket chain - Food Bazaar, sportswear retailer - Planet Sports, electronics retailer - eZone, home improvement chain -Home Town and rural retail chain - Aadhaar, among others. It also operates popular shopping portal - www.futurebazaar.com.

Future Group believes in developing strong insights on Indian consumers and building businesses based on Indian ideas, as espoused in the group’s core value of ‘Indianness.’ The group’s corporate credo is, ‘Rewrite rules, Retain values.’