"Building on 15 years of history of delivering peak growth vision for retailers, we are proud to unite the industry at the Indian Retail Congress"

Darwin's "Survival of the Strongest" evolution is often misinterpreted as proclaiming that only the strongest survive, when its real underlying premise is that the "adaptable" of the species will best survive in a changing world. The tumult of change facing retail today indicates that the next league of retail leaders might not be the biggest or the strongest, but those that can most quickly adapt to the tidal wave of change. What is archetypal about the change is that it will be precipitated by the consumer.

Prior to the year 2000, the pace of retail change was relatively slow. Retailers were thriving in a product-centric world and could gradually tweak their models to achieve what can today be labelled as mediocre growth. The change to a consumer-centric world has turned retail upside down. Every Retailer is now scrambling to build smaller, cost-effective stores. There are both challenges as well as opportunities in the field of retail at the moment - what matters is setting the right priorities.

Indian Retail Congress is an initiative by Franchise India to culminate its 15 years of knowledge of working with over 2500 Indian and International retailers in their growth. Working on the ground with the retail fraternity and understanding their retail business models has given us the confidence to launch the Indian Retail Congress and bring together the retail fraternity for a reason- to relook at their businesses in the consumer world. The Retailer magazine has been fostering the retail industry with quality content since 2005 and would now aim to enrich the industry by bringing great business minds together, ignite partnerships and helps to spur the next great innovation by making them come together and see Retail anew.

The two-day event will cover the most pressing issues facing Retail today. Along with framing the great debates, the Indian eRetail Congress and Retail Workshops will offer tactical advice, while the Indian Retail and Eretail Awards will usher to the limelight new leadership in Indian Retailing.

I Look forward to welcoming you at the show

Gaurav Marya
Chairman, Franchise India