FoodWorld: Pioneering Organized Food Retailing in India

FW had also launched a sub-brand, 'Great Taste' for its own products, which was dropped later and the company decided to use the FoodWorld brand only. In May 1998, FW decided to introduce a new range of health food and herbal beauty products. However, as by now, customers had started associating the name 'FoodWorld' with grocery products, the company decided to sell the new range under the brand name 'Natures Bounty.' FW's private brand initiative remained rather limited, until 2001, when the portfolio was expanded to include a large number of products under the FoodWorld label. It was considered by industry observers the biggest such initiative ever undertaken in India...

So it invested in state-of-the-art cash registers and bar code scanners. At that time, there were no established norms for bar coding in India, so an entirely new bar-coding system was designed and implemented. In December 2001, FW decided to use the Internet and became the first Indian retailer to opt for the reverse auction mechanism for plastic carry bags in association with the leading Indian Internet Service Provider (ISP), Sify. FW usually procured 15 tonnes of plastic carry bags per month. To make the reverse auction process more viable, the quantity was increased to 45 tonnes(three month's requirement). The lowest bid that FW received was Rs 66 per Kg against the Rs 73 per Kg that it was paying at that time...