Landmark’s First Lady

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JAGTIANI: The deal with SPAR is a “very powerful one.”

Renuka Jagtiani discusses the debut of the world's biggest food store retailer in India and future plans.

As Landmark International gears up to unveil 14 more New Look stores this year alone in the Middle East, the name given to its director & CEO's first venture Splash in 1993 appears fitting.

"Due to the enterprise and hard work of the team, Splash today has earned prominence and recognition as a fashion brand.

For Jagtiani, the main fashion business brain in the organisation, the awe-inspiring response may well have spurred her decision to develop Landmark International in 2004, and franchise international brands including Aftershock, Reiss and Koton in the Middle East and Bossini, Kappa and Springfield in India.

"In 1999, Landmark Group entered India with the opening of the first Lifestyle department store in Chennai and I have been involved ever since.

The success of UK fashion chain New Look in the region urged its recent entrance to Saudi Arabia's market at Hayat Mall. Landmark International took on a complete franchise model for the first time with Turkish fashion brand Koton, which currently spreads across 20 countries with 150 stores and was recently re-launched with a new design concept at Dubai's Mall of the Emirates.

Jagtiani reveals that her task has involved spearheading Landmark Group's expansion plans by sourcing, securing and rolling out internationally successful fashion and lifestyle brands in the Middle East, North Africa and India.

She has, indubitably, confirmed her knack of recognising the next big thing and "brands that fill a niche," and predicts that the company's high street fashion brands will perform well in the emerging markets of Egypt, Jordan and Syria.

She describes rolling out Reiss clothing stores at Dubai's Mall of the Emirates and Festival City and Abu Dhabi's Marina Mall as "a challenge that I personally enjoyed, as it was a bridge brand with a different approach to young, fast fashion."

She says the fact that the UK's ladies occasions wear label Aftershock "is different from any other brand" has prompted the division's plans to bring its store numbers from 14 to 23 across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Oman, and eventually "make the Group one of the foremost branded retail giants in the region and beyond.

Jagtiani's eagerness to chase the latest style trends within markets would on first thought appear worlds apart from Landmark Group's ambitious plans for food retail chain SPAR in India.

However, Jagtiani says clothing lines from Max Fashions, a Landmark Group format, are actually a central part of the in-store offering, next to the top food, beverage, health and beauty, general merchandise and electronic brands.

"Landmark Group's expertise in non-food retailing combined with SPAR's proficiency in food and hypermarket operations will help to create a unique and compelling consumer offer in India.

Founded in the Netherlands in 1932 by Adriaan Van Wells, with its name derived from the DESPAAR - Door Eendrachtig Samenwerken Profiteren Allen Regelmatig, meaning ‘By United Cooperation All Will Profit' - SPAR now boasts almost 16,000 stores across 34 countries.

Renuka's husband Jagtiani is CEO of the Landmark Group, and he promotes Max Hypermarkets India Private Ltd. The company signed a license agreement with SPAR International in August 2007 to open branded hypermarkets and supermarkets across India. In the first phase, Max Hypermarkets revealed its intention to open seven stores within two years, two of which have already been unveiled.

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