Valentine's Day: Big business for luxury brands
In 1891, an Indian prince sent his beloved in London, a Valentine card set in carved ivory surrounded by diamonds. It cost him £250,000. In 2007 a love-struck CEO brought his Valentine a Sabbia Rosa cashmere and silk robe for $3230. This year you could fly her to the Taj Lake Palace hotel in Udaipur and spend two nights at the Royal Suite for $2,500.
Or you could present her cymbidium flowers nicely arranged in a ribbed vase from IK. The tag is Rs 1,71,500—Rs 1 lakh for the vase and Rs 1,500 per flower. You could also gift her a Tag Heuer Aquaracer Lady Watches for Rs 1,05,000.
Well, besides being blind, love can also be illogical. The power of reasoning is proportionate to the spending power of the love-struck.
And for luxury brands it means big business.
Analysis: India’s organised Retail sector strengthens into 2008
India's organised retail sector, which attracted numerous players in the last year, with big names like Bharti, Reliance and Aditya Birla trying to establish foothold, is set to witness manifold growth in times to come.
The lively sector will see an expansion in operations of existing players and the debut of others like Mahindra & Mahindra (BSE:500520), Parsvnath (BSE:532780), DLF (BSE:532868), Hero Honda (BSE:500182) and Indiabulls.
Industry estimates predict that the overall size of the retail sector in India is expected to touch US$427 billion by 2010 and US$637 billion by 2015 with the organised segment expected to account for 22 per cent by 2010, up from the present four per cent.
"Overall, the future looks promising notwithstanding the immediate hurdles," Asitava Sen, KSA Technopak's vice-president of retail and consumer goods, told PTI.
