Spykar Jeans may enter multi-accessory categories
Spykar Jeans plans to foray into categories like footwear, eyewear, time-wear, fashion-luggage, etc soon. Span Apparels Pvt Ltd, which produces Spykar Jeans is also targeting to turn the Spykar brand into a multi-country brand in the next three years and has already set up one shop in the UK. The company, which is into the premium segment of trendy and fashion jeans, has an annual turnover of over Rs 85 crore and claims market share of around 10 per cent.

Tupperware to launch new range of homecare products
Direct selling company Tupperware India, that sells premium plastic kitchenware, is planning to foray into the homecare segment with the introduction of its TupperCare range of products. The first product to be launched under the TupperCare brand will consist of a concentrated dishwashing liquid in a green apple fragrance, that will be available in a sachet packaging at a price of Rs5 per sachet, and will be followed by a 500 ml bottle and refill versions.

Organised retail sector share grows to 9 pc
Bangalore: The share of the country's organised retail segment has grown rapidly and is now estimated to be about 9 per cent of the current Rs100,000-crore industry.

According to the Retailers' Association of India, "Organised retail is about 8-9 per cent of the industry across the country while in cities like Chennai, it touches about 14-15 per cent."

The Association also said 65 per cent of the organised retail is taken up by food retail players while the rest is divided among apparel and lifestyle segments. Though luxury and premium malls have mushroomed across the country, the real growth for the retail sector in the country area is in value retailing.

It is felt that MNCs would find it difficult to make inroads into hypermarkets and value retailing because of the complexities of the Indian customer profile shopping habits. Indian retailers have also strengthened their supply chain in the last two years, thus leading to reduced wastage levels in the industry.

Wipro's consumer arm launches hair soap
The FMCG arm of Wipro Consumer Care and Lighting has relaunched its Wipro Shikakai hair soap initially launched in 1986.

The soap has been given a different packaging and would be enriched with herbal extracts, almond oil and hair softeners. It would be made available across the retail outlets in 100 gm packs and priced at Rs15 each.

Currently the company is offering one Santoor 45 gm soap free with every two packs of Shikakai soap as a consumer awareness programme.

Wipro Shikakai has a market share of 43 per cent on an all-India basis out of which 36 per cent was accounted for by Maharashtra.

Survey finds consumers get more satisfaction from scooters than bikes
The Scooter Total Customer Satisfaction Survey conducted by TNS Automotives, scooters deliver higher satisfaction to its buyers.

Bajaj Auto is the only company whose scooter customers are less satisfied than its motorcycle customers. Against this, Hero Honda, which entered the scooter market recently, has been able to keep up consumer satisfaction with its maiden offering `Pleasure.' Hero Honda also leads the satisfaction scores among motorcycle owners as well as scooter owners.

In the geared scooters segment, Chetak 4S of Bajaj Auto shares the top honours with Honda's Eterno. Though Eterno scores far higher on quality, Chetak 4S makes up with a much higher score on sales satisfaction.

In the ungeared scooters segment, Hero Honda's Pleasure tops the rankings followed by Honda's Activa. Pleasure scores higher on performance, design and quality and also rides on the strong brand image of Hero Honda.

In the scooterette segment, TVS Scooty Pep Plus, the indigenously developed product is the top scoring model in the entire scooter industry. It is also the only model to achieve a three digit score on performance and design in 2006 amongst all two wheelers.

After Pepsi, Coke plans ad on product safety
After Pepsi, it's the time of Coca-Cola to go on air with its new television campaign to reduce the impact of the recent pesticide in soft drinks controversy. Coke will soon launch ads that will endorse the safety of the product. Unlike Pepsi which used its chairman to endorse the product Coke is likely to get a celebrity either from the films or sports.

This is the second time in the last three years that both the cola majors have been accused of serving soft drinks that have pesticide levels much higher than prescribed limits.

Godrej launches Godrej Interio
Godrej & Boyce Mfg Co has introduced Godrej Interio, the umbrella brand for all Godrej furniture and interiors, and also announced an investment of Rs500 crore to consolidate its presence in the furniture space. The company plans to increase its thrust on its home and office solutions range. It also plans to enter niche segments such as furniture for stadium, health and hospitality and corporate showrooms,

Godrej & Boyce Mfg Co has set aside Rs200 crore and Rs250 crore to acquire two companies one in the UK and one in the US which would consolidate Godrej's position in the global market.

Godrej has also tied up with design houses in Italy and France as well as Indian ones.

Grasim launches five new fabrics
Aditya Birla Group company Grasim Industries, has launched `the look of the season' with five new fabrics backed by an ad spend of Rs2 crore, which would be spent from mid-September to end-November.

The company said it launched these new fabrics after extensive research and feedback from trade partners.

The new fabrics include Medova a polyester-and-modal based product, available in many colours; Plural — a blend of three fibres, polyester, modal and wool; Juventus — a poly wool product; Caramel--a softer fabric and Luztor a lustrous fabric. The fabrics come priced between Rs300 and Rs1,000 a metre.

RSWM to unveil new logo
RSWM, formerly Rajasthan Spinning and Weaving Mills, plans to unveil its new logo soon in keeping with its plans to overhaul its image, exit its regional identity and aggressively expand its portfolio to include value-added fabric and garment exports. The new logo will also denote a rich heritage and a sleeker organization.

Toyota's drive at Executives
Toyota Kirloskar Motor India has launched a new variant of the Corolla in India as a part of celebrations of Corolla's four decades of global leadership. The new Toyota Corolla Executive is targeted at bringing the car within the reach of a wider section of customers looking for a premium family car.

Toyota has said that the new Executive variant is targeted at the huge segment of corporate customers who were till now shying away from buying the Corolla due to budget constraints.

The new variant is priced within the Rs9-lakh limit on corporate purchases made by senior- and middle-level executives and is being launched just in time to capture the typical increase in demand in September by businessmen seeking to take advantage of depreciation benefits.

As a special anniversary offer, in line with the month-long celebrations in September, the Toyota Corolla Executive will be available for Rs8.85 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi).

The Toyota Corolla, launched first in Japan in 1966, has retained the Best Seller tag for 36 of its 40 years. It has sold 31.64-million units across 149 countries since launch. In India, the 9th Generation Corolla has sold 30,000 units since launch in 2003.

Pepsi CEO endorses Pepsi in TV commercial
PepsiCo has launched a one-of-a-kind of media campaign and is getting its CEO Rajiv Bakshi, to go on air saying: "Pepsi is safe for me, you, your children and mine."

Abhiram Seth, executive director, exports and external affairs PepsiCo India said, "Who better than Mr Bakshi, the CEO himself, to take the responsibility to make the consumer understand that Pepsi is completely safe?"

Seth said that to arrive at the content of the commercial, a vigorous survey was undertaken to tap the kind of assurance consumers were looking for from the company. The results of the survey clearly stated that the CEO himself should appear in the campaign, taking a tour with a common man through one of Pepsi's manufacturing facilities. It also demanded the verification of whatever Bakshi was vouching for through a scientist, who "after scrutinising the entire data was convinced that the Pepsi story was credible."

Seth said: "In this whole talk about Pepsi being an MNC, people forget that the company's Indian division is being run by professional Indian managers whose commitment towards the country and the business is undisputable."

PepsiCo India is planning to carry on with this particular advertisement for the present and is also gearing up to carry on with a different campaign during the upcoming cricket season.

Filmy Stock Exchange launched
The Filmy Stock Exchange has been launched by Filmi channel, owned by Sahara One Media and Entertainment, in Mumbai. The exchange gives Bollywood fans an opportunity to `own' their favourite stars. Registered users get Rs1,000 filmy rupees to create their portfolio of stars. The stock prices will change every hour on the basis of trading trends, box-office performance and industry news and gossip. Players can redeem their surplus filmy rupees for prizes from the channel.