One strategy that appears to have worked well for India's organised retailers is the decision to create private labels or store brands.

At lifestyle retailer Shoppers' Stop, the three store brands together account for approximately 25 per cent sales, up from around 20 per cent, at some six months ago, says Mr. Govind Shrikhande, the company's Vice-President, Buying & Merchandising. The price is not too different at other retailers such as Ebony and FoodWorld.

Mr. B.S. Narula, Managing Director, Ebony Retail Holdings Ltd, says RTC, the store's own apparel brand, accounts for 21 per cent of total sales. "In fact Ebony RTC kurtas are the largest selling items in our stores," he adds.

And in grocery, retailer FoodWorld's eponymous brand accounts for approximately 21 per cent of total sales. According to Mr. Oscar Braganza, President, FoodWorld Supermarkets Ltd, the company hopes to take the share of its store brand to 27 per cent of total sales by the time the first phase of the private label initivative is over. "There is consistent and repeat usage of private label products," he declares.

Mr. K. Radhakrishnan, Vice-President, Merchandising & Marketing, FoodWorld, says the company hopes to extend its private label to around 38 product categories, from the 22 it is currently present in. He adds that the company's store brand has performed especially well in the case of genetic items such as rice, sugar and pulses, racking up approximately 17 per cent of total sales.

At Ebony too, the focus is on increasing the contribution of the store's brand, Mr. Narula says, "We expect the percentage of the in-house brand to increase to 40 per cent by the year 2005." The company is also planning to extend the RTC label from apparel to accessories and some products, he adds.

Shoppers' Stop too is looking at pushing up the share of its store brands to around 30 per cent of turnover, says Mr. Shrikhande. However, the company has reworked its portfolio over the last few months, eliminating one store brand. According to Mr. Shrikhande the effort will be to add more exclusivity to the store brands by adopting a different look.