Modern India’s appetite for food is insatiable making food retail – whether through QSRs, fine dining, modern retail formats or even the kirana shops – one of the fastest growing industries in India. Rise in incomes, changing lifestyles, urbanization and easy availability along with fast changing demographics are only some of the reasons fuelling this exponential growth.
|
World class retail operations and supply chain management are central to India's food retail story unfolding in quick service outlets, fine dining restaurants, malls, hypermarkets and kirana shops |
With fast growth, come operational and logistical challenges. The perishable nature of these products makes it all the more challenging. Inconsistent back-end operations, haphazard front-ending, lack of modern cold chain capacity, inadequacy of packaging and low awareness about food safety and hygiene standards amongst manufacturers and customers particularly magnify these challenges.
It, however, remains that world class retail operations and supply chain management are central to India's food retail story unfolding in quick service outlets, fine dining restaurants, malls, hypermarkets and kirana shops. And there is a lot to learn from everybody – your customers, your suppliers and your competitors. Besides, there is increasing investor and operator appetite in the cold chain space, buoyed by the fiscal benefits to the industry announced in the last two union budgets. The next 10 years will change the face of the industry and you have the opportunity to incubate this change, drive this change, BE this change.
Event Structure & Highlights:
The event will comprise six sessions and interactive discussions efficiently packed in a day. Most sessions will have 2 parts. The first part will comprise presentations by the speakers. The second part will be devoted to floor discussions and Q&A. There will be a super-interactive panel discussion moderated by an industry expert. This will be followed by an evening of cocktails, recognition and entertainment.
SCM powered food retail – Landscape & imperatives:
Food retail is one of the fastest growing industries in India powered by demographics, rising incomes, changing lifestyles, global expectations and supply side ease. However, world class retail operations and 'India proof' supply chain management will be mission critical to this story unfolding in quick service outlets, hypermarkets, modern grocers, fine dining restaurants as well as kirana shops. This session shall seek to bring out the scope and vibrancy of this industry, establish the contours and imperatives of this growth, indicate hurdles and challenges and broad brush the actions that are needed to ensure sustainability.
Stretching cold chains beyond the home bridge - Generating acceptance:
Most Indians have or aspire to have a refrigerator, the last link in a cold chain before consumption. But for the home fridge to make true sense, the producers, processors and retailers would have to keep their end of the bargain and maintain a cold chain throughout the logistics of food products. Often however, this is not an easy decision to make in the Indian context given cost pressures, lack of availability of modern cold chain infrastructure and a deficit of awareness. This session shall aim to discuss opportunities and challenges with respect to cold chain maintenance in India in a bid to generate greater acceptance of professional cold supply chain management.
The Economics of outsourcing:
A decision around outsourcing cold chain management should be and is driven by economics. In this hands-on session, we shall, through the help of service user side and service provider side case studies, try and establish the economics of outsourcing as well as focus on the new dynamics that are transforming the way 3PLs and service users approach outsourcing decisions and relationships thereof. We shall then try and establish the contours of a successful outsourcing arrangement, setting the stage for companies to take their outsourcing relationships to the next level, and yielding massive benefits for both parties.
Innovation in procurement, packaging or logistics in modern foods business:
Consistent innovation that works in the Indian environment will be critical driver of the efficiency and effectiveness of food supply chains in India. This session shall comprise real life case studies capturing instances of innovation in procurement, packaging or logistics of modern foods business in India with the aim of broad-basing learning, applicability and therefore, benefits.
Investing in cold chain and agro logistics - Anchoring attractiveness:
One billion people is a market large enough to get the drool going in any investor. And investments there have been. The Government has, over each of the last two union budgets, sought to provide great stimulus to investments, both in cold chain as well as agro logistics infrastructure.. However, this is a constantly emerging sector and investors will have to stay in touch with ground reality to get their buck to produce three and the industry shall have to keep and eye on but also be sensible about M&A. This session shall seek to analyse the investment attractiveness of this sector and its multiple sub-sectors and help construct the foundation of a sound investment thesis.
Agro logistics in India - Farm to Bank:
With two-thirds of her people living in the rurals, India is an agrarian economy and it does not take much imagination to understand the potential in creating value in grain supply chain. India wastes a significant portion of its food production due to lack of warehousing infrastructure and poor logistics of its farm produce. Recent regulations, however, have sought to involve the private sector in the development of agri warehousing and logistics aimed at removing middlemen and supply chain inefficiencies in this sector thereby creating value in the hands of the farmer, and in turn, the entire supply chain. This hands-on session shall discuss the agro logistics opportunity in India and its challenges from investment and operation perspectives.
Awards
The KPMG-SCLC Food Retail & Supply Chain awards made its debut last year alongside the summit’s first edition. India’s first awards of their kind, the food retail and supply chain awards aim to recognize and celebrate achievements and innovation within the wider field of food retail, supply chain and operations. The awards, compered by Cyrus Broacha, were handed over in a glittering ceremony laced with cocktails and stand-up comedy entertainment. Award categories, guidelines and nominations for the second edition of these awards will be available here on September 1, 2011 – the date when the awards become open for nominations.
For information on the last edition of the awards, please click here
For press notes and a list of last year’s winners, please click here |
