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9, December 2006 Pragati Maidan, New Delhi.
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Kishore Biyani’s Future Retail is undergoing a major restructuring exercise to gear up for competition from the likes of Reliance and Bharti-Wal-Mart. Kishore Biyani’s cousin Rakesh Biyani is taking over as head of the retail business from Biyani Sr and will be responsible for the four main retail formats of the company — Big Bazaar, Food Bazaar, Central and Pantaloon — each of which will function as independent profit centres with new operational and finance heads. So far, Kishore Biyani was directly looking after these businesses. All existing businesses like Home Solutions, Depot, Wholesale Club and future joint ventures and alliances will be under Damodar Mall, who will be the head of incubation and innovation and report directly to Kishore Biyani. In addition, the heads of the group’s verticals — Future Brand, Future Capital, Future Media, and Future Logistics — will report directly to Biyani. A Future group spokesperson was quotes as saying in a leading financial daily, “As we grow, there is a need for accountability and such restructuring will ensure better topline and bottomline growth.” With the restructuring in place, Future Retail’s flagship venture Big Baazar will now be headed by Rajan Malhotra. The two other important businesses of Future Retail, Central and Pantaloon, will be headed by Vishnu Prasad and Sanjeev Agrawal respectively. The restructuring will free Kishore Biyani from day-to-day operational responsibilities and enable him to focus on the big picture. Meanwhile, sources pointed out, the company willl also create three separate lines of business: food, appparel and general merchandise, which will work across the four formats. Since the war for retail talent is likely to escalate, the future group is preparing a strategy to retain talent. In case of demise of an employee, his spouse or children will continue to draw the cost-to-company the employee was entitled to at the time of his demise till his retirement date. While this scheme was earlier applicable only to top executives, it has now been extended to all employees. Both the restructuring exercise and the new retention strategy come at a time when action in the retail sector is hotting up and Future Retail’s supremacy in the retail segment is set to be challenged by aggressive entrants with deep pockets such as Relaince Retail, the Bharti-Wal-Mart combine and the AV Birla group.
Date: 24-Mar-2007
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