MANAGEMENT DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS REPORT Indian Retail Indian retail is one of the pillars of the Indian economy and accounts for ~25% of its GDP which is amongst the highest in the world. Indian retail has experienced high growth over the last decade with a noticeable shift towards organised retailing. In the process, India retail has become more complex and is changing at an ever-increasing speed. Factors like shifting demographics, digital penetration and acceptance, growing disposable income, competitive intensity and the war for talent, require the industry to quickly adjust and modify existing models, approaches and processes to satisfy the needs of future consumers in order to be profitable. Currently Indian retail is in a dynamic and exciting phase. E-tailing Present online shopping spend in India is estimated to be around 8 billion US dollars and is expected to cross 45 billion US dollars by 2020 primarily driven by the increase in Internet consumers from 250 million in 2015 to 650 million by 2020. 90% of the 400 million additional online consumers will get activated online via mobiles led by improved and more reliable mobile infrastructure (4G), reduced rates for data plans & low-cost smartphones for masses ($100). More importantly, mobile internet by making content accessible to consumers at their finger-tips will digitally influence 250 billion US dollars of shopping decisions in terms of when, where, what & how consumers shop (>25% of retail). Wide assortment, attractive pricing, cash-on-delivery, EMIs, hassle-free returns, etc., have been the key enablers for e-commerce in India so far. Going forward shopping in micro-moments via apps, personalised shopping experiences, digital payments via wallets, improvement in supply chain nationally & hassle free exchanges will be the new drivers of growth led by the O2O phenomenon (online2offline or offline2online). Modern Retail The overall retail market in India is estimated to be ~630 billion US dollars of which modern retail is estimated to be 9-10% i.e ~60 billion US dollars. The sector has grown at ~12% over the last decade and going forward expected to grow at a moderately higher rate. Between 2005-2015, overall retail market has grown at a CAGR OF 12-13% with organised retail growing at ~22%. The overall retail market is expected to be 1100-1200 billion US dollars by 2020, of which modern retail share expected to be 140-160 billion US dollars. Modern Retail – Challenges Ahead There are several challenges which need to be overcome to sustain the growth of modern retail. It is critical for retailers to define a viable transformation agenda to stay relevant and win in the market place. Efficiently customising merchandise according to the catchments, efficient supply chain, delivering an in-store experience consistent with brand positioning, effective allocation of space, running localised campaigns effectively, investment in capabilities required to win with e-commerce and providing a strong value proposition and maintaining a flexible cost model will help modern retail to grow consistently and combat digital disruption. S.W.O.T. Analysis Strengths First Citizens: Our Loyalty Programme “First Citizens Club” has continued to be one of the main strengths of our business. We crossed the 4.12 million mark in memberships, making it one of the largest loyalty programme in the country across sectors. The Company continues to believe that its loyalty programme is not only a source of substantial competitive advantage, but also a very strong strategic tool. Your company believes that its First Citizens will continue to drive its growth by increased average expenditure in our stores, aided by targeted promotional activities. Our fan base on social media has also been increasing, with more than 7.9 million fans on our Facebook page. We see significant opportunities on both these platforms for engaging our customers. Strong focus on Systems, Processes and People: We continue to invest in our retail front end as well as back end processes with IT enablement. The Company believes that continuous investment in people, process and technology will drive sustainable and profitable growth for the Company. We have in the past year, undertaken a number of new initiatives in the technology deployment and continue to improve our current information technology capabilities and processes. Strong Distribution and Logistics Network and Supply Chain: We have created a robust distribution and logistics network, with four regional distribution centres covering more than 450,000 square feet handling over 400,000 SKUs per year and working 24x7. The organisation strongly believes that the “hub-and-spoke” model followed by it for its distribution network, will stand it in good stead for the expansion envisaged in the forthcoming years. Enhancing our Human Capital: We continue to Develop our Customer Care Associates (CCAs) across all levels through Development & Assessment centres for promotion decisions, career planning and succession planning. Individual and organisational development is the primary objective of the assessment centre. We also conduct Associate Satisfaction survey every year and derive ASI scores, which helps us in identifying the index scores of respect, credibility, fairness and pride with the organisation. We continue to benchmark our compensation and benefits through consultants, with the best in the industry to pay our associates accordingly. We benefit from our Promoters’ association with the real estate business and their relationships with developers, which have helped us acquire brferred properties at competitive rates. Our investment in new stores in last four to five years has resulted in to a robust network of 77 department stores at prominent catchments sbrad across the country. We are also parallelly embarking on our omnichannel journey to tap into the exponential e-commerce growth in India. Management Strength & Corporate Governance: The Company has a professional and well-established management team. Furthermore, the Company’s unwavering focus on good Corporate Governance has been a beacon for the industry. Our internal and external auditors are amongst the Big 4 audit firms of the globe. The Board has 6 Independent Directors with Rich & Diverse Experience across Industries and Geographies. Strong Brand: Shoppers Stop has been a forerunner in establishing a Pan India Retail Brand. Our strong brand image, helps us in being, the first choice for shopping by elite customers, anchor tenant for mall operators & place to launch new brands for all brands & suppliers. The Company has successfully grown gross margins year on year due to the brand strength. Shoppers Stop was Felicitated at the India Fashion Forum with 16th Images Most Admired Fashion Retailer: Omni Channel Initiative: Multi Brand Award. Risks and Concerns Execution: We believe the key risk to our growth is execution risk. The Company has a strong execution team and we believe it has the capability to execute varied retail formats. Employee Retention: The Company believes that employee satisfaction and retention is of prime importance. The demand for experienced personnel in modern retail will only increase in the near term and long-term. Your Company believes that this problem will persist until the industry reaches a steady growth phase. Pressure on Retail Lease Rentals: Rent is one of the largest components in a retail business’ fixed costs, and the case is no different for the Company. The permission of 100% FDI in single brand retail is also one of the reasons for increased demand for prominent catchments in key malls consequently resulting in to higher rentals. Power cost and service tax is also a matter of concern as they put substantial brssure on profits. Internet Usage: India’s Internet user base is currently third largest in the world. This, coupled with the rising consumer confidence in online retail, is driving the growth of e-commerce in the country. With a significant number of Indian consumers turning Internet users, and eventually, online shoppers, selling through the online channel is set to redefine retail. The Company in order to counter the impact of loss in business due to online e-commerce sales, has designed a two pronged strategy which includes, Omni-channel approach to driving sales with the emphasis on seamless and engaging customer experience and plans to sell products and brands online via tie up with leading online e-commerce portals. Development of New Technologies: E-commerce Platforms being adopted by Brands themselves or by B2C & B2B Applications; as well as the obsolescence of older technologies could have a significant impact on the performance of the Company. The Company will be making focused and substantial investments to embrace new technologies and infrastructure for the Omni channel, which is a combination of physical store and online site. Vendor Production Capacity: The Company’s expansion plans combined with renewed vigour on the e-commerce retail segment & possible new entrants in the brick & mortar segment of retail, these factors may trigger a constraint in terms of vendors reaching their production/supply capacity. The Company is looking at establishing new sources within and outside India, to mitigate the problem. Government Levies: Retail is currently not viewed as an industry in India. Hence, there are certain levies/cascading effect of taxes on the business which are proving to be a very large burden as there are no modes for the industry to recover or pass on these levies. Delay in the roll out of the GST regime is also a matter of concern. Investee Companies: The Company has invested in other entities and lower than expected returns from these entities will have an impact on the cash flows and consolidated results of the Company. Opportunities Geographical Reach: Your Company continues to increase its Pan-India footprint. The Company’s strategy to increase the number of departmental stores, and therefore improve city wise penetration in new cities, increase market share in existing cities through additional new stores in those cities, and new stores in tier II cities, remains unchanged. Over the last five years the Company’s retail space has increased from 2.3 million square feet for the year ended 31st March, 2011 to 4.28 million square feet for the year ended 31st March, 2016 which is an imbrssive increase of 86%. Format Diversification and Expansion: Your Company, in its constant endeavour to capture wallet share, has diversified into multiple formats viz., HomeStop which retails hard and soft furnishing, M.A.C., Bobby Brown, Estee Lauder & Clinique which retail high end makeup & skin care products, Mother Care which retails infant and kids merchandise and airport retailing, by tying up with the Nuance Group AG of Switzerland. The Company has also made a successful foray into Internet retailing through its e-retailing portal. The Company continues to expand these formats successfully and will maintain a focus on them. Private & Exclusive Brands: The Private Brand Business is at a new phase of growth – the journey has started from being just fashion Labels to becoming National Brands with high customer traction and Brand recall. The first step has been to move to a Brand lead vertical and give each brand its own DNA and Brand identity. The financial growth has been mapped season-over-season so as to increase the share of Private Brand contribution to the Chain. The Product, Trend mapping, Visual merchandising, in-store Presentation, Brand building, discounting and phasing strategy is being worked upon at a category level so as to bring a diverse and unique assortment and experience for the consumer. Through Brand building and engagement of loyalty customers we are pushing for analytics driven sales and are also working closely with Marketing to increase footfall and get more new customers to the store . Omni Channel: Shoppers Stop embarked on a 3 Year omni-channel journey last year to tap into the exponential e-commerce growth in India. The Company has plans for focused investments in technology & operations set-up over the next few years to provide seamless shopping experiences online & in-store for our customers and drive profitable revenue growth through digital. As part of the Year 1 phase we have re-launched our website and introduced brand new mobile apps in both Android PlayStore & iOS AppStore based on the SAP Hybris platform. This year your Company will be investing in a CRM (Microsoft Dynamics) and a WMS (JDA) to build on cross-channel customer service, supply chain & operations capabilities enabling customer journeys such as Click N Collect, Endless Aisle & Ship From Store. Your Company believes more consumers across the country will embrace Shoppers Stop through its digital shopping channels due to the convenience of shopping our full assortment at best prices across channels viz. stores, mobile, website with the added advantage of being able to return, exchange anytime, anywhere. Threats Economic Slowdown: Economic slowdowns have a direct impact on consumption. Retail being the end service provider of consumption in the supply/value chain, is bound to face difficulties in an environment of economic slowdown. The Company continuously looks at stepping up the marketing activities and strong cost control to protect the Company’s profitability. Threat of New Entrants: With India continuing to be an attractive retail market, the Company expects many new entrants into the sector, thus increasing competition. However, the nationwide footprint, excellent customer service levels, look & feel of the stores, competitive product offerings & capability of its management team to execute the business operations & expansion are the few factors amongst many which would certainly help the Company to retain its market share. Competitive Rivalry in the Industry: There is intense rivalry among leading national retailers for new locations and quality real estate. The Company believes that it has a robust pipeline of stores for future expansion. Growing competition from online players price war among e-tailers for ramping up sales by offering steep discounts, attractive deals and lucky draws on a range of products, has brought disruption to the traditional retail sector. Availability of quality real estate space at commercially viable cost and at desired locations is a greatest challenge and will impact the growth of the Company. Customer Entry Retailers measure entry as footfalls, which is the number of people entering the stores. This is computed through manual count in all stores during trading hours. Conversion Ratio Conversion is the ratio of the number of transactions (Cash Memo) versus the total customer entry into the stores. Tracking conversion helps the retailer understand the productivity of his front-end store employees and the attractiveness of the merchandise and services Sales Gross Sales both at chain level and for Like-To-Like stores has grown against last year. The growth was 10.5% in gross retail turnover of Shoppers Stop departmental store business. The sales per sq. has been computed on built-up area. Apparel The Apparel contribution to total sales of the Shoppers Stop Departmental store business was 64.2% in FY 2015-16 as compared to 64% in 2014-15. Non-Apparel This category includes Cosmetics, Personal Accessories, Jewellery, and Leather goods, Home Wares, Electronics, Books and Music. These lifestyle products have high aspiration value, and as the consuming class increases, there will be a big surge in the demand for this category. The Non-Apparel contribution to total sales of the Company was 35.8% in 2015-16. Sales Private & Exclusive Brands Your Company aims to provide a differentiated and unique offering to the customer through its own private brands as well as through exclusive private brands. The contribution of private brand is at 13.5% of sales as compared to 14.1% last year and private label brand growtn by 6.3%. Your company is working on several new initiatives to drive the share of existing private brands like Stop, Life, Haute Curry, Vittorio Fratini, Eliza Donatein & Kashish. Exclusive brand contribution of Sales is at 3.5% as compared to 2.9% last year. The growth of exclusive brand sales is 31.5%. Exclusive brands include, brands/labels such as Rheson by Sonam & Rhea Kapoor, Wrogn by Virat Kohli, Desigual the Spanish fast fashion brand Average Selling Price (ASP) Average Selling Price is the Gross Retail Sales divided by the number of units sold. Tracking ASP helps the retailer to align the offering as per the customer segment as well as improve the productivity of the floor space Transaction Size (Rs.) Transaction size rebrsents the amount spent by each customer on his buying. This is computed by the total sales divided by the number of cash memos. Merchandise Purchase Your Company’s ability to brsent on the shelves correct merchandise assortments in the right mix, style, colour & fashion is one of its most critical success factors. A team of Buyers & Merchandisers continuously ensure that the pricing strategy and value proposition are completely in tune with the customers’ expectations. We regularly monitor sales trends to optimise inventory levels. Our well-established systems and processes in Buying & Merchandising & Logistics enables us to efficiently manage the flow of inventory to stores, provide prompt replenishments and manage pricing. Your company believes in a broad distribution of risk with no high dependency on any single supplier and has a diversified supplier base. Suppliers are selected after evaluation based on fairly stringent parameters which ensure the quality & reliability of supply. Alternate distribution channels for inventory have also been put in place as a contingency, should the need arise. Supplier Risks Our broadly varied offering necessitates alliances with a large number of suppliers from various business sectors. In order to mitigate the risk involved, we enter into arrangements with vendors in various business formats such as outright buy/sale or return, consignment & concessionaire/conducting arrangement. Shrinkage Shrinkage in the retail business is defined as the loss in inventory through a combination of shop lifting, pilferage, and errors in documentation and transaction processing that go unnoticed. We have focus on inventory control and have set-up a separate department called profit enhancement, which not only monitors Shrinkage on a regular basis but also looks at various factors that could lead to Shrinkage at stores and distribution centres. The profit enhancement department, Store Operations along with the Supply Chain team have worked together and monitored the Shrinkage level on a month on month basis which has resulted in the Shrinkage percentage being controlled at 0.36% of the turnover and our endeavour will always be to lower this ratio through proper monitoring and continuously reviewing inventory management processes and systems Operating Profit Operating Profit (Without exceptional items) has increased by 15% to Rs. 22,031 lacs in the brvious year. The Operating profit (without exceptional items) has increased during the year to 5.8% from 5.6% as compared to last year Net Interest Interest cost has increased to Rs. 3,817.84 lacs as against Rs. 3,620.97 lacs. Profit after Tax The Company has achieved post tax profit of Rs. 2,517.62 lacs, as against a post tax profit of Rs. 4,073.53 lacs last year. Interim Dividend The Company has paid an interim dividend of 15% amounting to Rs. 753.43 lacs (Including Corporate Dividend Tax). Inventory The inventory as at the end of current year is Rs. 38,587.11 lacs as against Rs. 32,961.33 lacs as at the end of the last year. Inventory holding period is 172 days during the current fiscal against 172 days last year. The inventory has been valued at lower of cost or net realisable value. Liquidity The cash generated from operations was Rs. 16,276 lacs. Productivity/Operating efficiency parameters We look at our Gross Margin with reference to our Space, Inventory and Labour to monitor our efficiency with the help of 3 indicators i.e. Gross Margin on Inventory (GMROI), Gross Margin Return on Floor Space (GMROF) and Gross Margin Return on Labour (GMROL). GMROI helps to optimise inventory levels, GMROF helps to maximise the cash margins and GMROL helps to increase labour productivity. Partner Satisfaction Index (PSI) The performance of any company depends on the association and relationship it builds with various vendors/partners over a period of time. To evaluate this satisfaction and expectation, your Company has appointed CSMM (Customer Satisfaction Measurement and Management), a part of IMRB (Indian Marketing and Research Bureau) to do an impartial evaluation of our relationship with various stakeholders. This helps your organisation understand the expectations of various business partners, current strengths and concern areas thereby help set a clear roadmap for improvement and better performance Partnership for Progress Partnership for Progress (PFP) is a vendor, meet which your Company conducts annually. During this event, your Company gets and gives opportunity to the top retail vendors/brands to discuss and strengthen the association, apart from exploring various business possibilities with each other. The summit also becomes a platform for your Company as well as its partners to share their experiences with each other. Your Company also invites well-known international and national speakers to share learning and experience which is closely related to Retail, Brand, Customer, Logistics, etc. Your Company also recognises the performance of top partners who are rewarded with “SHOPPERS STOP PINNACLE AWARDS” during this summit. This is an activity with more than 100 vendors/partners attending the summit. Human Resources • Vision & Values: With the advent of technology, stiffening competition and ever changing dynamics in the market, it was important for us to revisit and Vision and redefine it. We have been able to successfully launch our redefined Vision and also refine our Values to keep it a crisp and concrete 6 in number. It was a Grnd launch across 7 key stores across the country. The complete roll out across other stores has also been planned and in progress. • Grow Model Coaching Workshop: Individuals become Leaders only when they can create new leaders. With this strong belief in mind, we helped 7 individuals get certified on Grow Model of Coaching through an accredited and acclaimed Coach. This was a 8 days intensive programme with rigorous brparation and assignment work. • Zero Tolerance to Harassment at Workplace: As an organisation, we are committed to create a Harassment Free workplace for both Men and Women and believe in promoting gender equality across the organisation. At Shoppers Stop we want to respect the individual as a person, the individual’s body and mind. Our endeavour is to create an environment at the workplace which is safe for both Men and Women and make it crystal clear that harassment in any form will not be tolerated. Pan India workshops were conducted to bring about awareness about Zero Tolerance to Harassment. In the Financial Year 2015-16, totally 14 cases were reported which were satisfactorily solved. • Assessment Centres: In continuation of the organisations’ endeavour to provide internal growth opportunities, in the Financial Year 2015-16, Assessment Centres were held for several portfolios. 330 across various levels cleared the assessments. • The award Winning Baby Kangaroo Programme primarily provides development and growth opportunity to the front end associates and helps them evolve as thorough Department Managers. In July-August 2015, 26 Customer Care Associates went through the 32 days of the exhaustive and effective M.A.S.T. (Managerial and Supervisory Training) programme and embarked on their journey of the Department Manager. This programme was seamlessly organised and facilitated by the Learning & Development team at the Services Office and the learnings were also imparted by a pool of internal and external speakers and trainers. • F.L.E.X.: First Line Executive Xcellence is a Training Life Cycle and a development programme for the Department Managers. After attending a two days classroom workshop, the Department Managers would work on live and pertinent Action Learning Projects which would ultimately benefit them and their respective stores. The brsentations would then be done to the Unit Head and Area/ Regional Controller. This year, 176 Department Managers from across the country were part of this programme. • ‘SS Mobcast’, a Venture into Mobile Learning, was effectively utilised in this year for sharing learning snippets. This helped to create and maintain a connection with the associates at the stores and Services Office and this initiative was apbrciated. • ‘The Learning Planet’: Learning Management System (LMS) was also effectively utilised this year for managing the online learning data and content for all the associates. Periodic detailed reports sent by the L&D team truly helped to understand and gauge the results of the online tests and to take corrective actions wherever necessary. Marketing This year, Shoppers Stop advertised its exclusive brands, specifically haute curry and life, through a series of brss advertisements featuring the trendy designs from the latest collections. We had category based promotions like the SKD Exchange Fest, Back to College, Suits & Jackets Fest in association with the NGO partner Akshaya Patra, to name a few. These festivals provided offers across all brands available in our store for the particular category. Customer engagement through innovative initiatives in Digital and Social Media continued to be a big highlight this year. Various contests and continual engagement on this space have ensured that Shoppers Stop enjoys a large number of fans, more than 7.9 million, on Facebook. Shoppers Stop is the largest big-box retailer on Facebook in India. Shoppers Stop is also active on other platforms such as Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and Pinterest. Customer Satisfaction At Shoppers Stop we strive to provide our customers with the best overall experience of shopping with us. To measure the customer experience we conduct customer satisfaction surveys to evaluate a range of parameters including merchandise range and quality, store environment, staff, transaction efficiency, loyalty programme, schemes and promotions to name a few and undertake improvements in various areas. We also include select competition stores in our surveys in order to measure experience in our stores as compared to competition. Loyalty Programmes Your Company runs the famed ‘First Citizen Loyalty Programme’. The First Citizens programme now has a base of over 4.12 million customers. During the current year, the First Citizens contributed 72% of the Company’s annual sales. The First Citizen programme has 3 tiers - Classic Moments (entry level), Silver Edge and Golden Glow. Members fall into the various tiers on the basis of their spends with us. First Citizens also earn differential rewards basis on their current tier of membership. First Citizens receive: • Reward points on their spends. These reward points can be redeemed for a wide variety of merchandise at your Company’s stores. • Exclusive schemes, benefits and promotions. • Extended and exclusive shopping hours - especially during the festive season. Special brviews before the sale periods. • Invitations to exclusive events - both in-store as well as those organised outside the stores. • Home delivery of altered merchandise for some tiers. • Exclusive First Citizens lounge at select stores to relax after hectic shopping. This year, your Company launched an additional brmium tier titled First Citizen Black. The First Citizen Black card is a statement that “you have arrived”. Members can enjoy exclusive privileges such as: • 10% Extra reward points throughout the year. • Exclusive First Citizen Black cash counters. • Dedicated assistance called Black Assist (11:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m.). • Valet parking services. The First Citizen experience is also accessible on mobile, by updating the exclusive First Citizen Mobile application on Blackberry, Android and iPhone platforms. This year, the Company continued with the exclusive promotion for First Citizen members – First Citizens’ Fiesta. Under this promotion the eligible member got Rs. 1000 Discount Voucher besides lots of other special offers and deals. The promotion was very well received and it helped us further reinforce our strong relationship with this member community. Your Company also continued with the ‘Choose Your Own Gift’ offer which gave customers the chance to select their own gifts from within the store. Instead of offering a br-selected gift, Shoppers Stop offered customers Bonus Reward Points on their purchases which could be redeemed on any product of their choice. This year, your Company expanded this offer to non First Citizen members as well. Co-branded Credit/Debit card Programme with Citibank Your Company in association with Citibank continues to offer its First Citizens an option to add on a credit card to their existing loyalty cards. This enables First Citizens to add on a credit line to their purchases. They also have the added advantage of being able to choose from amongst various attractive financing options, cash back schemes, EMI schemes, etc., for buying at your Company’s stores. Risk Management and Internal Control Effective governance consists of competent management; implementation of standard policies and processes; maintenance of an appropriate audit programme with internal control environment effective risk monitoring and management information systems (MIS). The Company has an integrated approach for management of risk and has formulated the framework for regulatory and risk management, standardising the definition of internal controls. It also provides a framework for risk management and regulatory compliance, which requires risk assessments and related policies, a control-based environment and activities, information and communication procedures, and a monitoring mechanism for the control environment. The Company has laid down a sound system of Internal Controls for financial reporting of various transactions, efficiency of operations and compliance with relevant laws and regulations commensurate with its size and nature of business. The Company has a well-defined system of management reporting and periodic review of businesses to ensure timely decision-making. These internal control procedures ensure the following: • Efficient use and protection of resources. • Compliance with policies, procedures and statutes. • Accuracy and promptness of financial reports. The MIS forms an integral part of the Company’s control mechanism. All operating parameters are monitored and controlled, with material deviations from the annual planning and budgeting and business outlook including capital expenditure reported to the Board on quarterly basis. In line with the needs of Companies Act, 2013, the Company has documented & tested all the key internal controls related to both Financial Reporting and Operational Controls. Reports of internal auditors are reviewed by the Audit Committee, and corrective measures are carried out towards further improvement in systems and procedures and compliance with Internal Control System. The board also recognises the work of the auditors as an independent check on the information received from the management on the operations and performance of the Company. Technology Initiatives In the year 2015-16, your Company has taken significant initiatives in the technology adoption in line with the identified technology roadmap towards becoming truly omni-channel retail organisation. These endeavours have helped improve the efficiencies of existing applications and infrastructure and at the same time building newer capabilities. Some of the key initiatives that your Company took during the year are: Management Discussion and Analysis Report Shoppers Stop Ltd. Better On-line Experience with new e-commerce Platform This year we implemented a new age eCommerce platform with rich features to provide better 24x7 shopping experience. This initiative has helped in improving experience of shoppersstop.com by providing customers the options to access via desktop, tablet, smartphones and apps. We continue to endeavour for introducing other features of cross channel integration and fulfilment options to create a personalised and pleasurable shopping experience for customers. In-store Customer Engagement Initiatives and Improved Experience In order to further improve the in-store checkout experience for the customers and reduce the wait time for checkout, your Company has commenced introducing mobile based check out system. In an effort to provide improved engagement for customer, your Company has introduced electronic feedback system at stores, thus bringing an alternative to paper based feedbacks. Efficient Supply Chain & Smarter Fulfilment Model Continuing the endeavour to further improve the Supply Chain efficiency and create cross channel fulfilment capability your Company has invested in implementing a new age Enterprise Warehouse Management Solution. The newer solutions besides managing the growing scale and complexity, shall enable smarter fulfilment options for customer across channels. HRMS Solution for Associate Enablement Human resource being a critical element in maintaining a customer centric organisation culture, the Company has completed implementing an agile HRMS solution with improved features for employee self-service and mobile enabled functionalities towards maintaining an efficient workforce. Information Security & Compliance Initiative Besides advancements in business systems your Company has focused on establishing information security best practices and compliance to latest standards of information security, such as PCI/DSS. Corporate Governance Your Company has taken steps to ensure that the Corporate Governance guidelines are adopted and fully complied with. The detailed Corporate Governance Report is attached with this Annual Report. Cautionary Statement The statement made in this section describes the Company’s objectives, projections, expectations and estimations which may be ’ forward looking statements’ within the meaning of applicable securities laws and regulations. The annual results can differ materially from those exbrssed or implied, depending on the economic and climatic conditions, Government policies and other incidental factors which are beyond the control of the Company |