AgTalk | Jay Gupta on his entrepreneurial flight to success with "The Loot'

Jay Gupta, an entrepreneur in its truest sense, tapped into the market where customers wanted to buy brands at affordable prices and therefore established "The Loot' store in 2004. Being highly perceptive, a quality essential and characteristic to an entrepreneur, Gupta went ahead with this multi branded discount chain which was much appreciated by customers and business associates alike for the last six and half years. "The Loot' is now the pioneer in this market. Recognizing this accomplishment, the company has bagged 15 prestigious industry awards in 2009-10 "Star Entrepreneur Award" at the International India Innovation Summit held in 2009. Today "The Loot' has a presence in over 23 states across the country and is established in 85 cities with over 150 stores. Adgully did an exclusive interview with Jay Gupta, to bring to you his experience on this journey to success.

Adgully: Could you share with us two highlights of your association with "The Loot' Stores?

Jay Gupta: The queue outside Marine Lines in 2004 of 400 customers and India's Largest Multi Brand Discount Store of 20000 sq ft at Kalyan.

Ag: What were the setbacks to establish a store like "The Loot'?

JG: To clear misconceptions about the concept of The Loot was the challenge, particularly, convincing the consumers about the quality of the merchandise and convey to them that we are not dealing in seconds /defectives etc but are original surplus product stores. The challenges were team management & financial management to take the company to a much different and higher level and keep fully equipped with infrastructure to handle competition. It has been possible to meet these challenges by having a professional management at all levels.

Environmental challenges were to fight stringent rules and regulations and red-tapism. In retail one needs to get 20+ approvals of various laws including licenses and, file various returns etc.

Ag: What is the market share of The LOOT viz. a viz. competition?

JG: While we don't have any direct competitors but we do have a lot of indirect competition from factory outlets, seasonal sales in the full price stores etc. Unhealthy competition and practices, especially from unorganized sector is another worry. Also big industrial houses coming up with similar concepts and going to any level to mar the competition cannot be ruled out. The Loot differentiates itself from other factory outlets, which sells defective and seconds, an area The Loot is not into. Besides offering guaranteed products at guaranteed prices, The Loot offers its customers an unmatched international shopping experience. We give enough value to the customers as opposed to the factory outlets we take complete onus of the goods we sell and provide exchange, and work towards making our customers satisfied.

Ag: How has the retail space evolved in the last three years?

JG: Over the last few years, retail has become one of the fastest growing sectors in the Indian economy. In fact, India has topped the annual list of the most attractive countries for international retail expansion, according to AT Kearney's Global Retail Development Index 2006.

Ag: How have you incorporated the online medium with your chain? What were the challenges?

JG: Online medium provides an additional sales channel for existing customers. We have tie up with e Bay, Naptol, Straight Line, Rediff shopping, Big Price Off a Your Bazaar. The challenges were to deliver the goods ordered on time, make the buyers believe that the goods sold online were authentic. We also ensure the dynamic activity of updating our product list online to get freshness and get more brands.

Ag: Can you predict the future of the retail space in the next five years?

JG: Retail is clearly the sector that is poised to show the highest growth in the next five years. The sector is set for a revolution, both the present players and new entrants are gearing up to explore the market. This sector contributes 10% of India's GDP and the current growth rate is 8.5%. There are about 300 new malls, 1500 supermarkets and 325 departmental stores currently under construction. Many players are coming up with huge investments, due to which the present 12 million mom-and-pop shops and kirana stores fear losing their business.

Ag: Which sectors do you see growth coming from?

JG: I think there is major scope of growth coming from Tourism, Telecom & Service sectors in addition to this retail sector.

Ag: What are the marketing strategies?

JG: The Loot's creativity lies in the fact that we are India's first company to sign a negative character of Hollywood and Bollywood ' Gulshan Grover as its Brand Ambassador. Gulshan Grover acts like a modern day Robin Hood who loots big brands and passes them to the masses at the lowest rates.

We have worked on factors like the store ambiance, the advertising, promotions, events and in-store communication as a marketing strategy.

Ambiance plays a pivotal role in the positioning of The Loot store because as soon as one enters he/she will realize the difference between any ordinary factory outlet/ seconds store and The Loot store in terms of the "entire shopping experience". Today's customer does not just look for mere shopping but it is an entire process of comfort- friendly sales executives, appropriate lighting, proper stacking of the merchandise, after sales service which leads to ultimate customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Ag: What are the new initiatives in the pipeline?

JG: To propel the growth of the company and to move to the next level, The LOOT has invested skillfully in IT. The company focus is also on personnel training and great emphasis is being laid on preparing the back end to take growth to about 200 stores by June 2011. A modern fully equipped and technologically upgraded warehouse has been set up at Bhiwandi, which can accommodate upto 8-10 lacs pieces of merchandise to meet the growing demand of the expansion.

The Loot has tied up with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) to implement their SME ERP solution in order to streamline and bring efficiencies to its business, which will benefit not only the Company but also its customers and franchisees.

At the same time, we are planning to build an entire Loot campus for the necessary backend support. This campus will comprise of the warehouse, manufacturing unit, design team, fabric bank, training centre etc. to reach to the goal of being in the Top 3 retail companies in the next 3 years

Ag: Anything else you would like to add?

JG: The Loot is a true-blue example of entrepreneurship. When it was started, it neither received any financial support from any funds, nor any supply support from the brands it sold. After six and half years of surviving the highs and the lows of the retail sector, the Loot has created a bench mark for itself. | By Janees Antoo [janees(at)adgully.com]