Saying 'oui' to the Indian market

The French are stepping off their pedestal of snobbery to push the ticket for trade with India.

Delhi Mumbai and Bangalore are seeing two interesting developments, both related to the arrival of delegates in large numbers from two countries.

For the 110 Chinese dealers in LVMH luxury goods in China, perhaps a glimpse of actor Shah Rukh Khan as he walked the ramp for them was the highlight of their trip.

For the French, here for an Indo-French Business Meet, though, the only thing the couple of hundred businessmen were keen to chew on was how to do business with the Indians.

Ravi Thakran, president and CEO of the watch and jewellery segment of Louis Vuitton, urged the Indians to visit China "every six months" instead of looking West, to see how businesses grow.

The French, though, were less emotional and more hard-headed, cutting through the chaff to ask whether there was a market for olive oil, VAT on wheat and bakery products, or sustainability for frozen vegetables.

It is another matter that Vuitton too was in India simultaneously and became a part of the babble to promote the Made in France label. "We believe that the consumer in India has been ready for some time now and is buying here instead of Singapore, Dubai or London," said Ravi Thakran.

In 2004-05, France accounted for 9.2 per cent of Indo-EU trade, and French imports to India were ¤1,294 million in 2004-05, and ¤2,332 million in 2005-06.

The SME sector was a very small player in this, and it is this that the French minister of foreign trade came pushing when the biz meet was inaugurated yesterday in New Delhi.

Delegates will also travel to Mumbai and Bangalore. Two hundred-odd heads of SME companies will interact with 1,000-odd Indian businesses, over 3,000 B2B meetings scheduled over five days.

While there is multi-sector participation in construction, cosmetics, energy, waste management and pharmaceuticals, an additional thrust is in the agro-foods industry and wine.

These delegates will also participate in the IFE (or International Food, Drink and Hospitality Exhibition) on Decemebr 7-8 at Pragati Maidan.

The French embassy is at hand to familiarise participants on the pitfalls as well as opportunities of doing business with India, and a spokesperson said it was site visits (workshops, warehouses, liaison offices) that would prove most useful for delegates.

On Sunday, Tag Heuer signed up an inextricable link with the Indian luxury goods market, marking time as official timekeepers for polo, followed by the somewhat idiosyncratic game of elephant polo amidst reasonable chaos.

Later that evening, the Chinese were at odds to find out what was happening when first a Rohit Bal fashion show for their benefit was postponed by almost two hours (after they had settled down) and then was ruined by the lights failing when the models were on the ramp.

It brought to mind that India was still far from the luxury map of the world because the infrastructure was not in place, and not because its price-conscious consumers were careful about the value proposition of quality.

In spite of that, Tag Heuer, which had pledged to grow at the pace of two stores a year in India (and has six so far), will pump in funds to set up as many as 20 stores more, all of them in 2007. In addition to more LV stores, and one more each Fendi and Dior are on the cards.

What Thakran as well as the delegates at the business meet kept harping on was the lowering of taxes, the creation of retail spaces, and penetration into markets beyond just the metros.

"The next 24 months will be critical," said Thakran, echoing what many at Pragati Maidan were saying. The Chinese, though, were mostly silent, except for a brief while when they clapped wildly for Shah Rukh Khan. Sometimes, clearly, Made in India is just as strong.